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David Cameron moved to cool the row over his expenses by signalling he could pay the taxpayer any profits on the sale of his country home.
The Tory leader has come under fire for years of claims for mortgage interest on a £350,000 loan for his constituency property.
He said today he had bought the large house in Oxfordshire in 2001 to keep his family together at the weekends.
But Mr Cameron pledged to abide by any reform that forced MPs to pay the state the capital gain on the sale of their taxpayer-funded second home.
He bought his house in Witney for £650,000, but it is now estimated to be worth £1million, representing a paper profit of £350,000. Mr Cameron has pocketed £102,000 in public money to subsidise his mortgage interest between 2002 and 2007.
The Conservative leader told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he felt it was wrong MPs had built up big property portfolios with public money.
He promised to abide by any rules from an independent review by Sir Christopher Kelly: "If Chris Kelly comes out and says 'actually, any capital gains, that part attributable to the mortgage interest someone was paying, that should belong to the taxpayer rather than the individual', I would be very happy with that."
Reader views (5)
this is not leadership or taking a moral position.....
if the review requires him to pay back a capital gain - he will but presumably will not if this is not the outcome, therefore the defence of working to the rules of the system can be applied. Either he believes it is acceptable to make capital gains on the back of a state funded mortgage or he does not...if in his opinion it is wrong he should be instructing all Conservative MPs to do the same....
Me thinks that Cameron has a habit of talking big but actually delivering nothing........
- Martin_Clerkenwell, london, 02/06/2009 15:10
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Disgusting, they are all at it,I have voted Conservative for years. June the 4th I am voting UKIP, Cameron is worth millions,Its just greed, he and the rest of them should hang there heads in shame, there was a time one did the honourable thing ,and shoot themselves!.
- David Crocket, Bradford, UK, 02/06/2009 14:55
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I am your leader, don't do as I do, do as I say.
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa, Spain, 02/06/2009 14:07
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What he's not going to stand down?
Ummm another do as i say and not what i do.
what a great leader!!!!!
- Caroline, london, 02/06/2009 12:51
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With only a couple of days to the Euro and council elections all the party leaders will be coming up with stunts like this. All three main parties will be hammered on Thursday. Maybe they will then start listening to the electorate's views about the many and varied issues.
- Man U Fan, London, 02/06/2009 11:25
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