Former PPS questioned over alleged £700 expenses fraud

A FORMER member of Theresa May’s Government was questioned by Scotland Yard this week over allegations of expenses fraud, it has emerged.

Chris Davies, 50, a former parliamentary private secretary to ministers in the Wales Office, is under investigation for two claims worth £700 he made in 2016 for furniture and photographs in his constituency office.

The MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, elected in 2015, was interviewed under caution by Metropolitan Police officers on Tuesday.

Mr Davies was named as a PPS – an unpaid position – by the Prime Minister in January, but was left off the latest list published last month after the allegations emerged. Andy Mcdonald, compliance officer at the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), said: “The police investigation is currently ongoing.”

The Met said it was investigating “an allegation of fraudulent expense claims submitted by an individual”.

Mr Davies told the BBC last April that he had made “an honest mistake” by claiming for furniture and pictures for his office and said he had repaid £450 after being asked to do so by Ipsa.

He attributed the claim to “my inexperience of the Ipsa code”. He accepted he manually created two invoices in a claim for expenses, which he should have entered online, but insists the information had been in the public domain for two years. “I’ve apologised for getting the code wrong.”