Peer put cleaning moat on expenses

THE peer behind last night’s wrecking amendment is a former Cabinet minister who became one of the most prominent figures in the MPs’ expenses scandal.

Douglas Hogg, now known as Viscount Hailsham, agreed to step down as an MP after it was revealed that his claims included the cost of having the moat cleared, piano tuned and stable lights fixed at his country manor house.

He employed a full-time gardener and ‘lady’, who had a salary package of £14,000 a year to keep house at the estate.

The Eton-educated barrister’s £2,200 expenses claim for the cleaning of his moat was widely ridiculed by detractors of the Conservative Party who pointed to it as evidence that its MPs were stuck in old, elitist ways.

In May 2009 Viscount Hailsham became the first MP to announce that he would leave Parliament in response to the scandal.