12:00pm Thursday 25th June 2009
By Patrick Knox
SATELLITE navigation kits and books on Tony Blair are some of the items listed in Basingstoke Tory MP Maria Miller’s expenses files. Other claims were for camera equipment and office plants.
When the expenses scandal first broke in May, The Gazette had access to the MP’s expenses after she brought them in to our Pelton Road offices.
Now, after a Freedom of Information request prompted the Commons authorities to publish all of its MPs’ expenses for a three-year-period, another examination has been possible.
More than £400,000 in allowances have been claimed during Mrs Miller’s first three years in Parliament.
Her additional cost allowance (ACA) claims for her second home in Merton, South London, mostly consist of mortgage interest payments of about £1,400 per month. She designates a rented property in Old Basing as her main home.
Other claims revealed in the documents include monthly cleaning bills of £200, a one-off carpet cleaning bill of £190 and a £90 bill for her garden.
In total, Mrs Miller’s claims came to £21,632 in 2005/2006; £22,080 in 2006/07 and £23,000 in 2007/08.
The maximum she could claim under the ACA was £21,634 in 2005/06, £22,110 in 2006/2007 and £23,083 in 2007/08.
Claims made under the Incidental Expenses Provision (IEP) were spent on running her Westminster office and her day-to-day work as an MP.
Many of the claims were for stationery, postage and other running costs and paying the Parliamentary Resources Unit for research and briefings.
Other documents revealed spending on electronic goods, including two satellite navigation systems, costing £387, and camera equipment costing £1024.91.
Kitting out the office in the last three years included office plants, which cost the taxpayer £97.50, office chairs costing £480, a fridge at £99.94 and TV for £79.99.
On the communication allowance for publicity, which Tory leader David Cameron wants scrapped, the MP spent £6,446 in 2007/08, which included a £1,762 bill for her website.
Responding to the new publication, Mrs Miller has insisted all her claims were entirely connected with her work.
She said: “I think that it is absolutely right that there is complete transparency in the money that is spent on MPs’ work, both in running the office and doing their work.”
In February 2008 a receipt shows she paid £154.61 for books including Blair Unbound and Blair’s Britain.
One receipt also shows children's books, including Vikings Don’t Wear Pants: Potty Poems of the Past.
However, Mrs Miller, has categorically denied claiming for these, saying she was only reimbursed for books connected with her political work.
Many of the published documents have details blacked out which Mrs Miller condemned, saying: “I think the way that the expenses were published has simply served to breed further mistrust.”
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