Top Tory claimed £17,000 for gardening at Kent home

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Mr Howard charged the sum for "gardening services" at his designated second home in Kent, which has extensive woodland.

The former home secretary said his claims were "entirely proper", but other Tory grandees have been disciplined by David Cameron for using public money on similar homes in the country.

The Tory leader himself faced criticism over his own use of taxpayer-funded expenses to subsidise a £350,000 mortgage on his Oxfordshire home. Mr Cameron referred his case to his party's scrutiny panel and promised to repay any money if his claims were found to be unreasonable.

It emerged yesterday the Tory leader paid off a £75,000 loan on a London house after he took out another mortgage on his second home in his constituency. It was claimed that he could have saved the taxpayer £22,000 in mortgage interest if he had used the money to lower his loan in Oxfordshire. He said last night that he didn't think he could have reduced the claim. Labour MP John Mann said: "Simply appearing before an in-house panel that answers directly to him won't convince anyone." Mr Cameron, who has claimed the maximum on his second home, was forced to defend himself as a raft of new allegations emerged over MPs' expenses.

In 2004/5, Mr Howard claimed £5,092 for gardening - more than his annual mortgage interest, utilities bill or council tax for his second home in his Folkestone and Hythe constituency. Mr Howard said much of the work from The Turned Worm Gardening Company was for general maintenance. "The claim, therefore, was for general maintenance including the maintenance of the garden," he said.

Tory MP Jacqui Lait overclaimed on her second home mortgage for three years and had to pay back more than £7,000 when the fees office noticed. Tory shadow minister Mark Hoban claimed £35 for a lavatory roll holder, £100 for a chrome shower rack and £79 for four silk cushion covers on his second home allowance. Labour MP Gwyn Prosser paid his brother to lay flooring at his London flat even though he reportedly lived 200 miles away.

Tory MP Bill Cash, who paid more than £15,000 of expenses to his daughter in rent, said today he would stop claiming until the completion of a watchdog's review.