Osborne 'flipping' expense probe
Updated on 02 July 2009
The Shadow Chancellor George Osborne is facing investigation by the sleaze watchdog over part of his second home allowance.
The Parliamentary Standards commissioner said he would look into claims about Mr Osborne's mortgage payments after a complaint from the Labour party chairman in his Tatton constituency.
A spokesman for Mr Osborne insisted he has done nothing wrong and described the complaint as politically motivated.
George Osborne is the Conservative leader's closest lieutenant, so this investigation by parliament's sleaze watchdog strikes at one half of the duumvirate that runs the Tory party.
The shadow chancellor lives in London with his family. But before he became an MP in 2001 he bought a house in Cheshire as a second home.
He says he funded the purchase by raising the mortgage on his London home. Parliament's fees office advised him he could use the taxpayer-funded second home allowance to cover the increased mortgage, even though London was not his second home.
In 2003, George Osborne took out a mortgage for £450,000 on his Cheshire home. He then designated that property as his second residence and started claiming the second home allowance. But the mortgage was £5,000 more than the asking price.
In a letter to Laurie Burton, the chair of the local Labour Party in Mr Osborne's Tatton constituency, parliamentary commissioner for standards John Lyon said he will be inquiring if "between 2001 and 2003 Mr Osborne wrongly identified his main home for the purposes of his claims against the additional costs allowance".
The letter goes on to ask if George Osborne "claimed for mortgage payments that were not necessarily incurred, contrary to the rules of the House".
A spokesman for the Conservative party said: "This is a political complaint by the local Labour party.
"George is relaxed about it and has always been very open in answering questions about his expenses.
"George has never switched designation for personal advantage. There has been absolutely no impropriety and any suggestion of such is wrong."
