Milk-claim MP puts a fridge on expenses

A WEALTHY Tory MP who had a 49p expenses claim for milk rejected has now charged taxpayers for a fridge in his constituency office.

Geoffrey Cox earns hundreds of thousands of pounds a year from his lucrative job as a barrister, alongside his work in Parliament.

But the Torridge and West Devon MP still claimed £94.74 for a fridge in his local office, it was revealed yesterday. The figure emerged in the regular records of expense claims issued by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa).

Records published in January showed that Mr Cox had had a

‘Blamed staff for oversight’

49p claim for milk rejected by the body, following a ban on reimbursements for refreshments.

In a statement at the time, he blamed his staff for the oversight. However his fridge claim, which was made in March, was permitted by Ipsa officials.

He has also had expense claims of £1 for black bin bags and £2 for tea bags rejected by Ipsa.

In other revelations, it has emerged that multi-millionaire Jeremy Hunt made an expenses claim of only 24p for travel.

The Westminster Health Secretary, who is thought to be worth more than £5million, made mileage claims for ‘constituency travel’ totalling 0.52miles, 0.8miles and two lots of 0.87miles in April.

This came to 24p, 36p, 39p and 40p respectively, with MPs receiving 45p per mile.

However he was not alone as Home Secretary Amber Rudd made a single fuel claim for 45p.