One of David Cameron's closest aides claimed a second home allowance “for years” when he only had one home.

Andrew MacKay claimed £140,952 from the second home allowance over the past seven years on the London home he shares with his wife, fellow Tory MP Julie Kirkbride.

But she put the London house down as her main home. She then claimed a total of £141,779 for a house she bought in her Bromsgrove constituency which she nominated as her second home.

Mr MacKay does not have a home in his Bracknell constituency.

Astonishingly, he did not appear to see anything wrong in the arrangement which one senior Tory described as “claiming for a second home that did not apparently exist”. He told his local paper: “I have checked through all my expenses claims over the past four years and there is nothing that stands out — I am confident there is nothing unreasonable in there at all.”

However, today he admitted an “error of judgment”, apologised and quit as a senior political aide to the Tory leader.Fellow MPs were amazed by the audacity of Mr MacKay's claim.

However, he said: “I had taken advice from the most senior person at the time in the Fees Office and they had suggested to me that I elect [as second home] our family home in north Worcestershire, in my wife Julie's constituency.

“This was all transparent, it was all approved and frankly until it was drawn to my attention it did not occur to me that it didn't pass the reasonableness test.”

Mr Cameron ruled his explanation “unacceptable”. Critics pointed out that the details might never have come to light but for the leaks to the Daily Telegraph.

Mr MacKay admitted: “Looking back now, it does look strange. I have clearly made an error of judgment for which I profusely apologise and I've done what I think is the right thing.” He has promised to repay part of the money.

Ms Kirkbride called his resignation “the right and honourable thing” and added: “For my part, I believe that my own expenses are both permissible and reasonable and I will make my expense details available for scrutiny by my constituents as soon as possible.”

The couple's arrangement collapsed when Mr Cameron ordered a review of all senior Tories' expenses claims in detail in an attempt to forestall more controversies. Mr MacKay was among the first to show his claims to a small team of investigators who were said to have been astounded by what they found.

Last financial year, Mr MacKay claimed a total of £22,575 under the additional costs allowance, while Ms Kirkbride claimed £23,083. The money is supposed to pay for overnight accommodation while on work duties.

The row deepened when it emerged that Ms Kirkbride is registered to vote at the address of the Conservative Party headquarters in her constituency rather than at her own home.

The building is a cheap office block opposite a supermarket and her office confirmed that she did not live there.This would appear to be a breach of electoral law, which says you have to be resident at an address to vote.

Ms Kirkbride said in March that she did not want her constituency home address published because of letters from would-be suitors who appeared to have “a fixation” on her, after seeing her on TV.

She sponsored a Commons amendment designed to change the law so that election candidates no longer have to publish their address.

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