Tory claimed £17,000 of expenses he was not entitled to

A CONSERVATIVE MP has been reimbursed for more than £17,000 of expenses claims, despite Parliamentary authorities admitting he should not have been entitled to the payments.

Philip Hollobone claimed for the London Area Living Payment (LALP) while also being reimbursed for travel costs between his Kettering constituency and Parliament, a combination which is not allowed under the expenses scheme. However, he will not be forced to pay back the bill because the watchdog admitted that it should have picked up on the error earlier.

Mr Hollobone had the lowest expenses bill in Westminster but most of his claims were waived by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

Overall more than £26,000 worth of claims were written off last year as spending by MPS on travel and other costs rose by seven per cent to £13 million. Security costs rose to £2.5million in 2016-17, having increased by £160,000 from the previous year. Jamie Reed, a former Labour MP, claimed the most at £243,279 but that was mainly down to his decision to quit as an MP, resulting in costs to wind up his office. Alex Salmond, the former Scottish National Party leader who lost his seat in June, claimed the second highest. The figures also show that MPS employing their family members fell last by around 40 last year to 152 after IPSA banned politicians from taking on new “connected parties”.

Eight MPS had expenses claims written off, according to IPSA records, including Mr Hollobone, whose bill accounted for almost all of the £26,000.

Mr Hollobone said he had claimed according to IPSA rules and his intention had been to take the smallest amount possible for living in London and Kettering. In a statement, IPSA explained: “We discovered that IPSA had not been proactive in making sure MPS were aware of the restrictions relating to LALP and that there was no effective control within IPSA’S online system to confirm that for these MPS the claimed journeys were exclusively from the constituency office.

“This affected a small number of MPS, where we accepted that they had complied with the rules as written.”

Charlotte Leslie, a former Conservative MP, was also similarly affected and IPSA acknowledged the mistake in her case as well as that of Mr Hollobone.