Midlands MP in new expenses row
Midlands MP Bill Cash has been drawn into the expenses row after it emerged he made claims to pay his daughter £15,000 in rent – despite owning a flat closer to Westminster.
The Tory MP for Stone designated the west London apartment owned by his daughter Laetitia as his second home during 2004 and 2005, using public money to pay her £1,200 a month rent.
At the same time Mr Cash, whose main residence is a country house near Bridgnorth, owned his own flat in Pimlico - a short walk from Parliament.
Shortly after he stopped claiming the money, 35-year-old Miss Cash, a former Bridgnorth councillor and a rising star in the Conservative Party, sold the property for a £48,000 profit.
Her father then reportedly nominated two private members' clubs as his second home for three months.
Commons rules were changed in 2006 to prevent MPs renting properties from close relatives.
Mr Cash, who has been an MP for 25 years, has denied any wrongdoing and defended his record of expenses which he said were within the rules at the time.
He claims he would repay the money if required to - but insisted he would still be standing for his Stone seat at the next general election.
He added he had been allowing his son to stay in his own flat in Pimlico rent-free.
Cash said: "If I hadn't been there I would have been renting somewhere else and possibly more would have been spent.
"From the taxpayers' view I was doing it at a lesser rate than I would have done."
Mr Cash rekoned everything had been done "within the rules" but added: "I believe strongly that those rules have got to be changed."
Other leaks reveal that Sylvia Heal, Labour MP for Halesowen and Rowley Regis, claimed an £822 accountancy bill - but it was refused by officials.
