Cabinet expenses: what they claimed
Updated on 08 May 2009
Cabinet expense claims reignite row over "dubious" payments, leaving prime minister Gordon Brown facing another difficult day.
The controversy over parliamentary expenses was reignited today after a newspaper printed details from receipts submitted by members of the cabinet in support of claims running into thousands of pounds.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the receipts showed Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid his brother for cleaning services, and Justice Secretary Jack Straw had to return overpayments for council tax and mortgage bills.
Although there is no allegation any of the ministers broke parliamentary rules, the report is certain to raise further concerns over MPs' £24,000-a-year second home allowance.
Campaign group the TaxPayers' Alliance said the "dubious" claims showed the need for "urgent and wholesale reform" of the expenses system.
An independent review of MPs' expenses due to report by the end of this year is expected to recommend a thorough-going overhaul of the system.
But Mr Brown had to drop his bid to replace the second home allowance with a daily attendance payment after failing to secure all-party support.
Receipts submitted by MPs were due to be published on 1 July, after the House of Commons authorities lost a legal battle to keep them secret.
Gordon Brown
Receipts submitted by the prime minister to the parliamentary authorities disclose that between 2004 and 2006, he paid his brother Andrew Brown for cleaning at his flat.
Andrew Brown, a senior executive at EDF Energy, received £6,577 over 26 months. Downing Street said the prime minister shared a cleaner with his brother, and had just "reimbursed him for his share of the cost".
There are also claims that Gordon Brown switched his official "second home" shortly before becoming prime minister, to take advantage of extra expenses.
David Miliband
The foreign secretary spent £30,000 on repairs, decorations and furnishings for his home in South Shields.
At one stage his gardener even questioned whether the outlay represented value for money.
In April 2008, on the bottom of a receipt for £132.96, the gardener wrote: "Please let me know if you would like pots making up at front and back this year, given the relatively short time you'll be here and their labour-intensive nature."
A spokesman said the Miliband had broken no rules.
Alistair Darling
The taxpayer contributed almost £10,000 to the costs of the chancellor buying a new London flat after he changed the official designation of his second home, the Daily Telegraph claimed. Darling changed where he considered to be his main home four times in four years.
This allowed him to claim thousands of pounds towards his family home in Edinburgh, while also buying a flat in London. Darling says the claims were "made within Commons rules".
Jack Straw
It was reported that Mr Straw claimed the full cost of council tax back even though he received a 50 per cent discount from his local authority.
He repaid the money last summer, shortly after a High Court ruling requiring the receipts to be published. Mr Straw also repaid money he was overpaid for his mortgage.
A spokesman for the justice secretary said: "Mr Straw takes his responsibilities in relation to claims under the Additional Costs Allowance very seriously. Any costs claimed in relation to his home in his Blackburn constituency and time spent in Blackburn have been made entirely in accordance with the rules set by the Commons authorities."
Lord Mandelson
The business secretary reacted to reports in the Daily Telegraph which disclosed he ran up bills of almost £3,000 on work to his constituency home in Hartlepool.
Lord Mandelson said the report - which details a £1,500 gardening bill and £1,350 in house repairs - was presented to provoke public anger.
"The fact is that these allowances would not have been paid if they weren't within the rules," he told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme.
Shaun Woodward
Taxpayers contributed almost £100,000 to help pay the mortgage on a £1.35m flat owned by the Northern Ireland secretary.
The money went on mortgage interest payments and council tax between 2004 and 2008 for the Thameside flat - one of seven owned by Mr Woodward, it was reported.
Caroline Flint
The Europe minister put solicitors' fees and stamp duty totalling £14,553 on her parliamentary expenses after buying a central London flat, it was claimed.
Before moving in to her second home in Victoria, she also claimed the £177 a month cost of putting her furniture in storage.
Over a period of about eight months in 2005 to 2006, Ms Flint claimed for staying in hotels for an average of three nights a week.
Paul Murphy
Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy used the Additional Cost Allowance, which MPs can use to help pay for a second home, to buy the freehold on a flat close to Parliament. Like Ms Flint, he put the arrangement fees and stamp duty on his expenses.
He also claimed for decorating and furnishing costs, including £35 for a toilet roll holder, £537 for an oven, a £605 TV and a £449 sound system.
Small claims included £1.98 on light bulbs, £6 on dust bags for a vacuum cleaner and a £6 tin opener, it was reported.
Douglas Alexander
Mr Alexander's constituency home was damaged in a house fire in 2007 after he spent more than £30,000 doing it up, the Telegraph said.
The international development secretary told the fees office he was "under-insured" and claimed almost £2,000 on items lost in the fire, which he later repaid when his insurers reimbursed him.
John Prescott
The taxpayer paid for the former deputy prime minister to fit the front of his home in Hull with mock Tudor boards and for his toilet seat to be repaired twice, it was reported.
The boards cost £312, while in December 2004 a plumber charged £210.79 for pipework, taps and to "refix WC seat".
In September 2006, he put a £112.52 repair bill on expenses, which included "refit WC seat".
Geoff Hoon
The expenses system helped Mr Hoon to build up a property portfolio reportedly worth £1.7m.
The transport secretary was able to switch his second home in a way which allowed him to improve his family home in Derbyshire at taxpayers' expense before buying a London townhouse.
In 2004/05, he claimed £20,902 for his second home, with thousands spent on renovations and refurbishments to the Derbyshire property, now reported to be worth more than £600,000, The Telegraph revealed.
After buying the Georgian townhouse near parliament and declaring it as a second home, Mr Hoon claimed £21,995 in 2006/07 and £23,083 in 2007/8 - the maximum allowed.
His monthly mortgage interest payments, picked up by the taxpayer, increased from £270 to almost £900.
Over two years he spent more than £500 on new flooring, bedroom furniture, lighting, a washing machine and a television - the second set claimed in two years.
Hazel Blears
The communities secretary claimed for three different properties in a single year, spending almost £5,000 of taxpayers' money on furniture in three months. She also stayed at London hotels at public expense after selling her flat.
In March 2004, Miss Blears declared her property in her Salford constituency was her second home and spent £850 on a television and video and £651 on a mattress.
In April, she switched her second home to a flat in south London, claiming £850 a month for the mortgage.
In August, she sold the flat, making a £45,000 profit, and stayed in hotels, including two nights at the fashionable Zetter, over the following two months.
In December, she purchased another London flat for £300,000, claiming a monthly mortgage of £1,000 and a grocery bill of £400.
Margaret Beckett
Mrs Beckett found herself in trouble with the Fees Office after attempting to claim £600 for hanging baskets and pot plants.
Of the work to her garden, an official informed her in a letter that expenses had to be "wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred to enable you to stay overnight away from your main home".
Despite having no mortgage or rent to pay on her constituency home in Derby, she claimed second home allowances of £72,537 from 2004 to 2008.
As environment secretary and foreign secretary, Mrs Beckett was living at the grace and favour Admiralty House in Whitehall, which enabled her to rent out her London flat.
Andy Burnham
It was reported that the culture secretary was grappling with the fees office for eight months over an expenses claim for £16,500 to buy and renovate a new London flat. Officials finally agreed to pay the cash after rejecting the claim three times.
This followed a series of letters from Mr Burnham pleading for his expenses to be paid urgently. In one note, he even said he "might be in line for a divorce" if the money did not materialise within days.
