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Cabinet ministers join scramble to pay back money
Joe Murphy and Paul Waugh19 Jun 2009
Three Cabinet ministers including would-be Chancellor Ed Balls today admitted over-claiming hundreds of pounds on their expenses for mortgages interest.
Children's Secretary Mr Balls admitted that he failed to calculate accurately the impact of falling interest rates - and so charged the taxpayer £1,350 more than he spent.
Similar blunders were admitted by Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Mr Balls's wife, Yvette Cooper, the Work and Pensions Secretary.
All three joined an undignified scramble of senior ministers and backbenchers to repay money to the Commons in fear of being disgraced for over-charging. Mr Miliband paid back £434.24 and Ms Cooper handed in £1,350.
A total of 183 MPs have repaid cash totalling £478,616. The sums were on a list slipped out by the Commons last night which sparked a new secrecy row because it failed to explain what had happened.
Chancellor Alistair Darling also admitted to mistakes and repaid £958.04. The sum covered £660 he had already promised to pay for a service charge for a flat he let out, with an extra £290 to cover a share of his TV licence and ground rent.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham paid £2,742 to cover two cases where he was overpaid because of administrative errors by Commons officials.
Gordon Brown made four paybacks totalling just over £800 to rectify "inadvertent errors or for the avoidance of doubt", said his office. They included £466.85 for cleaning costs that were accidentally claimed twice, an error only revealed today.
Another senior Cabinet minister privately repaid £12,600. International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander sent cheques for £4,200 and £8,400 following revelations that he was receiving rental income at a second home funded by the taxpayer.
Between May 2001 and September 2005, he sublet part of his Scottish constituency home to a tenant who lived there before he bought it while claiming £73,000 in second-home allowances for the cost of the entire home. The minister said he reduced his claims in line with the rental income. But records show he claimed close to the annual maximum.
On the Tory side, shadow chancellor George Osborne paid back three sums: £440.62, £654.91 and £99.96. His spokesman said they covered a simple change to the way he paid his property insurance and "an administrative error [that] was discovered and immediately repaid with interest a month ago".
The biggest payback was a staggering £42,674 from Health Minister Phil Hope. He was criticised for buying large amounts of furniture for a small London flat.
Labour MP Barbara Follett repaid £32,000, covering security patrols outside her London home. And Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has repaid £79.50.
Several Tories repaid money after criticism. Michael Gove paid £571.75 and £7,114; Chris Grayling £4,143.75; and Oliver Letwin £2,150. Tory Sir Alan Haselhurst, a candidate for Speaker, repaid £15,754 of "gardening expenses".
Reader views (14)
How many tax dodgers appearing in court are allowed to repay the money?
The act in itself is an admittance of culpability
- Gary, brentwood, 22/06/2009 08:14
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Simple comment; I hate females like Yvette Cooper, everything we females have done and YC and the former home secretary have set us back decades. Thanks for nowt
- Mazzy, london, 20/06/2009 18:55
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How have these people got the cheek to claim this money, at the same time in the newspaper were cases of pensioners going to prison for non payment of council tax.
- David., Chertsey.UK., 20/06/2009 11:35
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So Blinky Balls, a would-be Chancellor of the Exchequer, would have us believe that "he failed to calculate accurately the impact of falling interest rates - and so charged the taxpayer £1,350 more than he spent".
Instils you with confidence of him handling the nation's finances doesn't it.
His statement lacks truth.
And the wife is still at the Treasury and she did the same!
Miliband, well he's still to take his A Levels and keeps re-writing history anyway in some of his articles so accuracy is not his strong point.
- Giles Pepperell, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales, 20/06/2009 09:47
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Children's Secretary Mr Balls admitted that he failed to calculate accurately the impact of falling interest rates - and so charged the taxpayer £1,350 more than he spent.
Excuse me! Why do you need to calculate anything ? You pay the money then claim it back not think of a big figure and put in a claim for it. Every last one of our MP,s needs to be sacked and never allowed to stand again. A whole new bunch of MP,s should be selected and the number of these greedy clowns reduced by around a third!
- Duncan Walker, Ex Peckham now Thailand, 20/06/2009 02:21
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I am sure the Queen should sort out the MPs who have disgraced the face of British politics, What advise can we the British give to the commonwealth contries. DISGRACE. God save who! or the corrupted MPs.
- David Oozageer, South croydon, surrey, 19/06/2009 23:17
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Sack them and then a little stint in jail would bring them back into reality!!!
- Mark A, Warrington, 19/06/2009 22:18
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surely if none of the above can manage their own affairs without making huge blunders how can they possibly have a snowballs chance in hell of managing the countries and making huge decisions that greatly affect us all.
they are blatently inept and most certainly unfit to manage a public convenience let alone a public office.
- M.O'Brien, london.uk, 19/06/2009 17:37
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The mind boggles over the inefficiency of these people if the mistakes are genuine. If they are then they are not fit to run the country especially those who have responsibilities invoklving major govt.departments.If they are not genuine mistakes then they should be sacked and charged with theft.
- C.D.C, Shropshire, 19/06/2009 16:40
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The "voluntary" repayment of monies by these fraudsters is a glaring admission that they claimed it knowing that they were not entitled to it, and had no intention of giving it back, that is theft.
If you are stopped by security whilst walking out of a shop carrying items for which you have deliberately not paid, with the intention of permanently depriving the owner of those items, you are a thief. The fact that those items may be recovered and returned to the shelves is irrelevant, the offence is complete.
There MUST be prosecutions for the blatant criminality of MPs, who have stolen public funds.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 19/06/2009 15:51
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Now that over a third of our MPs, including senior members of the Government and Opposition have repaid various sums, the political classes need to finally accept that this Parliament is totally devoid of credibility.
These MPs if not unethical are at best incapable of conducting their own financial affairs. How then can they possibly be entrusted with the UK's parlous economy and finances?
There will be no "safe" seats!
- John C, Leatherhead, UK, 19/06/2009 15:25
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So the possible new chancellor got his sums wrong over claiming £1350.00, whats he going to mis-calculate if he lands the job. His wife Ms Cooper also mis-calculated the same amount on her expences, lets hope she's not going to have any input into his new job, should Mr Brown be daft enough to give it to him
- Dave, Chippenham England, 19/06/2009 15:13
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Ed Balls failed to calculate accurately the impact of falling interest rates when he claimed for mortgate interest! And he had hoped to be made chancellor! Does he think we are idiots? The banks/building societies calculate the interest owing - not the borrower - and they issue an annual statement showing what the monthly repayments should be. Did Balls and Cooper provide copies of such statements to the fees office? Did those in the fees office verify that what mortgage interest they were claiming was in fact the amount being paid? This warrants a full enquiry by Sir Christopher Kelly's team.
- R.F., Yorks, UK, 19/06/2009 14:47
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I suppose they hope we'll have forgotten all this come the next election!
- Chris, Brighton, England., 19/06/2009 14:29
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