Tory couple who broke expenses rules can KEEP their cash

Tory backbenchers Sir Nicholas and Ann Winterton 'unacceptably' used taxpayers' cash to rent a London flat they had already bought, the Parliamentary sleaze watchdog said yesterday.

They were censured by the Commons' standards and privileges committee for claiming second homes allowance on a fashionable £700,000 property after they had already paid off the mortgage.

Tory MP Sir Nicholas Winterton and his wife Lady Ann Winterton broke Parliamentary expenses rules by claiming rent on a flat they had bought outright

Astonishingly, the couple will be allowed to keep any public funds they have pocketed since 'unequivocally' breaking rules introduced two years ago to stop MPs claiming on properties owned by family members.

And they can continue to receive expenses on the flat until September 1 - a 'more than adequate period of grace' to adapt to the rule change.

The committee concluded they should not face any punishment because they acted 'unwittingly' and did not try to conceal the arrangement.

The Winterton's £700,000 Westminster home was bought in 2002, placed in family trust and was let back to them

Today opposition MPs said the Wintertons should be sacked for 'misappropriating' the money.

Sir Nicholas last night branded the report 'unfair' and insisted he and his wife had 'acted honourably'.

Parliament's sleaze watchdog John Lyon launched an investigation into the MPs, who represent two neighbouring Cheshire constituencies, after they were accused of milking their second home allowances.

The Wintertons bought their Westminster flat in the early 1990s, and later paid off the mortgage.

In February 2002, they switched the apartment to a family trust set up fot their children to avoid a massive death duties bill.

They still used their additional costs allowances (ACA), which allows MPs to run a home close to Parliament, to rent the property, which they believed was within the rules.

In the last six years they have claimed more than £165,000 from the public purse, and paid it into the trust.

The committee said the 'unusual' arrangement had 'unequivocally' breached rule changes in 2006 which banned MPs from claiming rent on properties owned by their families.

Even though officials told the Wintertons they were out of order in February last year no action was taken.

The committee said it was 'unacceptable' the couple had claimed more than £30,000 a year of taxpayers' money since 2006.

Their report concluded: 'While it is true that, once it had attracted the attention of the media, the Wintertons took steps to end them and to find alternative London accommodation, we believe they could and should have begun to do so earlier.

'Had they taken this course of action, they might reasonably have been expected to have made suitable arrangements by the end of the 2007 summer recess.'

Barring the Wintertons from claiming their allowance from September, the committee added: 'They will have benefited from what amounts to a grace period of two years, which in our view is, in all the circumstances, more than adequate.'

Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland said: 'They should pay the whole sum back. It is disgraceful to use their expenses to feather their children's nest.

'In any other job abusing expenses would lead to dismissal and many companies would seek to reclaim any money misappropriated for personal gain.'

Sir Nicholas complained it was 'unfair' the blame was not shared by Parliament's Fees Office, which pays MPs' expenses, because it agreed the arrangement in 1998.

He said: 'The taxpayer has not been abused and my wife and I have acted honourably. Why should I pay something back when the arrangement was legally and properly entered into.'