Hoon blow adds to pressure on PM

After Alistair Darling seemingly came close to conceding that his time as Chancellor was running out on Monday, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon admitted he had "accidentally" overclaimed £384 in similar circumstances.

Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman warned a meeting of the parliamentary party on Monday night that its position had been "challenging" before, and was now "even more difficult".

Meanwhile, another backbencher, Jim Devine, was referred to the party's "star chamber" over allegations that he submitted receipts from a firm that may not have existed.

Mr Darling became engulfed in fresh controversy over his use of Commons allowances when the Daily Telegraph reported that he had broken the rules by claiming for two properties simultaneously.

The Chancellor initially branded the accusation "completely untrue", but then announced that he would pay back around £350 in service charges on his London flat. The bill was apparently paid in advance shortly before he moved into grace-and-favour accommodation in Downing Street in 2007. "I'm sorry about that, I unreservedly apologise," he said in a round of broadcast interviews. "I do not want, as I said, to make a gain I am not entitled to. That is why the money has been repaid."

Mr Darling also gave the impression of being resigned to leaving Number 11, in a Government reshuffle expected as early as Friday. Schools Secretary Ed Balls has been mooted as a potential successor. "I have enjoyed the last couple of years, Gordon has worked very closely with me," Mr Darling said. "It is up to the Prime Minister. He has got to decide the team that he wants to be in the next government."

Mr Hoon also said sorry for an almost identical transgression, having apparently used Commons expenses to pay the TV licence, gas maintenance bill and home insurance at his Derbyshire property for a year in advance in 2006.

However, when he was demoted from Leader of the House to Europe minister that July and lost the right to live in a grace-and-favour apartment in Admiralty House, he bought a new flat in London and "flipped" his second home designation so he could claim expenses on it. That meant he was effectively claiming on two properties at the same time.

In a statement, Mr Hoon admitted: "After I left Admiralty House there was an entirely inadvertent overlap in bill payments. This was entirely accidental. As soon as this was brought to my attention I repaid £384 for the additional months of TV licence, British Gas homecare agreement and home insurance, covering the months remaining in the year after I moved."