A busy day for Maria Miller today, and not least because this morning’s Telegraph reports that the Culture Secretary has claimed £90,000 in expenses for the mortgage payments and other costs of a second home lived in by her parents. IPSA rules require second homes to be used exclusively by MPs.

Claiming for a property lived in by an MP’s parents is “specifically prohibited”. 

Guido can reveal that Miller has two properties in her name: a cottage in her Basingstoke constituency, and the property pictured above in Wimbledon.

The Wimbledon property was purchased by Miller and her husband in 1996 for £234,000, and will be worth at least three times that now. Although expenses rules clearly state that second homes must be lived in exclusively by MPs, Miller’s parents lived in the property while she spent most of her time in Basingstoke main home between 2005 and 2011. She stopped claiming in 2009, days before the expenses scandal broke.

The Telegraph story coming out on this day of all days is surely nothing more than coincidence…

A laughable interview on the Today programme this morning by Sir Ian Kennedy, the head of IPSA and the man in charge of a review of MPs’ pay. Kennedy says it is time to trust MPs again on expenses:

“Two and a half years ago Parliament was mired in controversy about expenses scandal and looks what’s happened in those two and a half years: an independent body has been created, we’ve addressed business costs, we’ve addressed expenses, we’ve got a good system in place which works. What we’ve got to do is say, look, 2009 is not back with us. MPs are not in a situation where they’re not to be trusted and that there’s no system in place. Quite the opposite, there’s a new system and it’s quite unfair to say that MPs are not to be trusted.”

He must have forgotten all about Stephen Dorrell, Denis MacShane, Margaret Moran, Linda Riordan, Meg Munn, Andy Burnham, Chris Bryant, Helen Grant, Bill Cash, John Whittingdale, Peter Luff, Jessica Lee, David Amess, Kevin Barron and Don Foster. And that’s just during the last month…

Former Tory Health Secretary turned troughing piggy Stephen Dorrell should be drafting his resignation this morning after the Telegraph revealed that he sold his old flat to friends, did not declare the controversial deal that netted him £70,000, and then rented it back off of them. All to break the spirit of the new expenses rules.

Dorrell openly admits that he contrived this tenancy to maximise his benefits under IPSA rules, he told the Telegraph

“…I bought it on an interest only mortgage, because that was the rule at the time, and that ended. So I arranged for a third party to buy it. We had an independent assessment of the rent and it is rented at arms length.”

If he was claiming welfare benefits instead of MPs’ benefits he could be prosecuted for fraudulently ”contriving a tenancy”…

In an added twist, there is also a huge undeclared conflict of interest in the fact that the friends are involved in care homes – an area being investigated by the Select Committee Dorrell chairs. The only job he should be doing is Stewarding the Chilton Hundreds…

One of the many rent-swappers revealed last month was Labour MP Linda Riordan. She claimed £1,473-a-month from the taxpayer to rent a London flat in spite of the fact that she rented her own London property to parliamentary colleague Iain McKenzie. At the time McKenzie claimed that he had no idea that his landlady was a Labour MP, absolving himself of all responsibility and ending the arrangement, apparently, as soon as he found out.

However, documents released by IPSA last night show that the payment for McKenzie’s rent was not to a holding company or estate agent like many of his colleagues, but instead straight to the landlord: Linda Riordan. So did McKenzie mislead us with his previous statement?

McKenzie has now admitted to Guido that he saw Riordan’s name on the lease document, but, and it’s a very big but, he didn’t realise his landlord was an MP because he had never heard of Linda Riordan before in his life:

“Payment was direct by IPSA, they advised they deal direct with Estate agent, the reason I used them. I signed the lease document, on it was landlord Linda – no indication of her employment. As I was only elected three months I did not connect the name, truth is I still do not know all MPs.”

Guido is sceptical, though in truth he’d never heard of her before all this either…

Thanks to @RossMcCaff for pointing out that it said ‘landlord’ on the FOI.

Equalities Minister Helen Grant has opened up a new front on the rent swapping saga: claiming for a flat despite owning a property in another constituency close enough to London, that if they represented they would be unable to claim for a second home.

We have had dozens of MPs owning property in London and renting another but the dishonest geography of this scam looks even more blatant. Last night’s Dispatches reported that Grant lives in a £1.8m house near her Maidstone seat and claims the maximum, to the penny, amount for taxpayer-funded flat in London.

Despite the commute from Maidstone being little over an hour, as a non-London MP, she is entitled to a second-home allowance. But Grant also owns a house in Reigate, less than twenty miles from Parliament. A taxi back there would be far cheaper than kitting her out with a luxury Thames-view pad. As for Ms Grant, her staff were more than happy to twist the knife on last night’s show. It seems she’s upset almost everyone. More later…

UPDATE: Grant also employs her husband Simon with taxpayers’ money as a senior parliamentary assistant.

This evening’s Dispatches will blow the lid on five more troughing rent-swapper MPs. Throughout October Guido revealed names of several of the MPs who were billing the taxpayer for the rent for their London accommodation despite owning properties in the capital that they themselves were renting out. Tonight’s programme alleges:

• John Denham has the nerve to charge the taxpayer for rent even though he has receives income from a London property he rents out. When Guido asked greedy expenses-guzzler Denham why he had decided to become a rent-swapper at the height of the scandal he sobbed that: “I was forced to vacate the property (and rent a flat) directly and solely as a consequence of changes in IPSA rules. For the avoidance of doubt, I would strongly prefer to be living in this property and not a rented flat”.

• Tory DCMS select committee chairman and rent-swapper John Whittingdale has started claiming rent for a considerably more expensive property than the London flat the he owns, used to live in and now receives rental income for.

• Mark Pritchard is billing the taxpayer for the rent for a London property despite the fact that he also owns a flat in the capital.

• Labour’s Michael Meacher has pulled the same trick in Oldham.

• While Pat McFadden has done the same in Wolverhampton.

Here is the list of MPs claiming for rent in full:

There are some very interesting names on that list. It would seem that Peter Luff is renting off a Frank Lampard. According to the chants, there is only one Frank Lampard, so it must be the Chelsea footballer. Keith Simpson rents off Tory peer Howard Flight. Stephen Williams rents off disgraced LibDem peer Jenny Tonge while Julian Huppert rents from Channel Four’s much loved old political editor Elinor Goodman. Jessica Morden rents off Madeleine Moon. They’re both Labour MPs.

Every single one of these MPs is relaying the same old sob story word for word to try to excuse their rent-swap troughing. 

They can blame the rules all they like, the fact is they are profiting thanks to the taxpayer…

UPDATE:

Michael Dugher MP, in charge of Labour's defence procurement review, rents off a Defence lobbyist.—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) November 19, 2012

Hardly a surprise but good news nonetheless that a jury has found former Labour MP Margaret Moran fiddled her expenses to the tune of £53,000. She committed 15 counts of false accounting and six counts of using a false instrument, though the jury were instructed they could not find her guilty due to her mental health. She will be sentenced at a later date…

MacShame’s grovelling is starting to look as pathetic as it is empty. Today he apologised to the people of Rotherham in a letter to the Yorkshire Post:

“How do I say sorry? Rotherham has been such an important part of my life and I have let this wonderful town, its terrific people and my constituency down so very badly. I accept fully the responsibility for my actions. That I was at grievous fault there can be no doubt. I cannot convey how much I will miss Rotherham. I am not from South Yorkshire but the people took me into their bonds of friendship and made my young family…feel very much at home. I finish by apologising from the bottom of my heart for the damage I have done, I hope only temporarily, to the good name of Rotherham, through my folly and mistakes.”

Meanwhile the CPS met with cops this week to discuss reopening the criminal investigation. He will need to do more than say sorry when they come calling…

Margaret Moran’s expenses trial got under way this morning, even if the former Labour MP’s mental health means she will not appear in the dock herself.

Moran is alleged to have claimed some £53,000 in false expenses. Here are the nine counts that were read out in court earlier today:

• Count 1: Claiming £575.78 for a washing machine, fridge and kettle for her 2nd home in London, though they were really for her main home in Luton.
• Count 2: Claiming £181.37 for a locksmith at her office. The work was done at her main home in Luton.
• Count 3: Claiming £87.09 for gas fire repair at second home. The work was done at her main home.
• Count 4: Claiming £527.20 for a bed and £2678.76 for carpets for her 2nd home. They were really for her main home.
• Count 5: Claiming £979.84 for an estimate for kitchen work. The work was never done.
• Counts 6 & 7: Using a bogus invoice and claiming £4756.40 for kitchen units that were never installed.
• Counts 8 & 9: Ten claims for utility bills totalling £2424 when the true cost was £286.35.

The trial continues…

The Standards and Privileges Committee report on Denis MacShane is so damning that Labour HQ have already said his career is over. The report found that MacShane:

• Claimed nearly £20,000 a year in expenses for an office based in the garage of his South Yorkshire home.
• Signed claims with a “nom de plume” purporting to come from a General Manager who did not in fact exist.
• Knowingly submitted nineteen false invoices over a period of four financial years which were plainly intended to deceive the Parliamentary expenses authorities.
• Claimed thousands of pounds for eight computers that got ‘lost’ or were taken by interns.
• Claimed £12,900 for invoices from his EPI slush fund. He didn’t provide a single receipt for payments.

Do not pass go. Do not collect £200. Go straight to jail… if there was any justice.