The expenses scandal is set to engulf the House of Commons again on Monday when MPs will be sent an auditor’s letter about the claims they made over the past five years.
The Times has learnt that up to 100 MPs will be asked to repay expenses, or prove that their claims were legitimate. About a dozen are likely to face demands to hand back significant sums, in some cases “tens of thousands of pounds”.
Investigators working for Sir Thomas Legg, a former civil servant appointed by the Commons to audit MPs’ expenses, are understood to have focused on big mortgage claims, as well as extravagant charges for household services.
Sir Thomas is also said to have widened the net of his investigation to include MPs who exploited loopholes to make claims that were in breach of the spirit, if not the letter, of the fees system.
“If I was an MP getting a letter suggesting I repay sums, then in the current climate it would be foolish not to do so, even if the claims were within the rules,” said a Commons official close to the inquiry.
Some MPs have already had to pay back four-figure sums after being found to have claimed the full cost of their mortgages, rather than merely the interest that they are allowed under the rules.
The letters being sent out on Monday are expected to ask dozens more to provide details of complex mortgage loan agreements so that it can be determined whether wrongful claims have been made, either deliberately or by mistake.
Others, who have charged thousands of pounds for gardening or cleaning costs, will be asked to make immediate repayment.
Sir Thomas’s audit this summer was ordered after a meeting between Commons authorities and party leaders and is said to have cost upwards of £1 million.
MPs who receive what are being described as “challenging letters” from Sir Thomas will get three weeks to provide evidence clearing their name before being referred to a committee chaired by John Bercow, the Commons Speaker.
A Times/Populus focus group this week confirmed that there is intense voter suspicion towards all politicians and both main parties. According to one well-placed source yesterday, the Legg inquiry is likely “to catch fish of different political colours”.
The report will be published in December together with full details of expenses claims from 2008-09. Unlike last summer’s official disclosure of such information, when huge sections were blacked out, these will be uncensored except for details such as bank account numbers.
Source:The times
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