There is something fishy about this – how does Osborne justify a mortgage for more than the house actually cost?  Isn’t that maximising the interest burden on the taxpayer to an unhealthy degree?  Also this two-year period where he claimed for a mortgage on his main home which he had used to finance his second home is very questionable.  Surely it is not beyond the wit of a man who hopes to be Chancellor to arrange for a mortgage to be on the right property?

Osborne’s spinning that it is politically motivated, even if it is, that doesn’t mean the issue should not be investigated. This is public money and Osborne wants to be trusted with the public finances. He needs to show that his behaviour and intentions were beyond reproach.

What it shows is the attitude of MPs to maximising their own income from the taxpayer extends even to those who supposedly are hawkish on controlling government spending. Not encouraging is it?