Two Scottish MPs join the challenge to demands they pay back expenses

Published on Sunday 31 January 2010 21:32

TWO Scottish MPs are among 70 who are challenging demands that they pay back some of their expenses.

Labour MPs Ian Davidson and Frank Roy are on the list of MPs unhappy with the demands made by Sir Thomas Legg.

Sir Thomas was brought in to decide how much MPs should pay back to the taxpayer after the furious public reaction to revelations of the excessive expenses claimed by many members of parliament.

Claims for gardens, moats, duck houses and bell towers, as well as 400 a month for food and 250 for petty cash, led to a furious reaction from voters and demands for wholesale reform in the Commons. There has been public disquiet that many MPs refused to accept Sir Thomas's demands and pay back immediately.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg had told his MPs that they should not challenge Sir Thomas's ruling. And there have been accusations that MPs are trying to undermine Sir Thomas's demands.

However, many MPs feel that they have been misrepresented throughout the expenses scandal. And there was fury among many backbenchers – particularly Labour MPs – that Sir Thomas retrospectively set limits for cleaning and gardening, which had not previously had a limit, but did not target large mortgage claims.

This was partly why Prime Minister Gordon Brown decided to pay back 12,400. However, in two of the three Scottish appeals it is claims of mistakes made by Sir Thomas and the Commons fees office that have led to the appeals.

Mr Roy, MP for Motherwell and Wishaw, was asked to pay back one of his mortgage claims which he insists the fees office lost the receipt for. Last night he said through a spokesman that he had managed to get another receipt, but it had arrived too late to affect Sir Thomas's original decision because the original building society he had borrowed from had been taken over.

However, he said he expected the payback claim to be overturned on appeal being dealt with by Sir Paul Kennedy.

Mr Davidson, the MP for Glasgow South West, has said that he will not comment until Sir Paul Kennedy has reached a decision on his appeal.

However, through a spokesman he said last night that he would pay back any money Sir Paul ruled should be returned. The appeals have come from 35 Labour MPs and former Labour MPs along with 30 Conservatives, three Liberal Democrats and two independents.

Sir Alan Beith, the Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick upon Tweed, is among those appealing.

He was unavailable for comment last night, but he has previously made it clear that he was being asked to pay back a mortgage he never took out or claimed.

In a statement last year he said: "The letter I have received from Sir Thomas Legg refers to a mortgage which I have never had, and raises questions based on very inaccurate information about the rent of my London flat and the proportion of that rent which I claimed back from the allowance which is roughly 55 per cent."

So far nine MPs have won their appeals.

Among those challenging Sir Thomas's findings are former Conservative leader Michael Howard and the Conservative MP for Gosport, Peter Viggers, who was forced to announce his retirement after it emerged he had tried to claim for a duck house.

Former home secretary Charles Clarke is one of several Labour MPs to be let off a demand. He reportedly successfully challenged a demand he repay 743 he received for mortgage interest.

The Solicitor General for England and Wales, Vera Baird, has also reportedly won her appeal and had nothing to pay.

Ian Davidson

HAS not revealed what items he is challenging. However, some questions have been asked about Mr Davidson's claims, including 5,500 to a family friend to help renovate his home between 2005-6 and 2007-8. He also took the friend on a shooting party with members of the House of Lords.

He reclaimed money for reclining furniture that cost nearly 1,500 and was delivered to his home in Glasgow.

Frank Roy

IS CONFIDENT that his appeal against having to repay a mortgage bill will be won. The Motherwell and Wishaw Labour MP has maintained that the repayment request was a result of the fees office losing the paperwork he had sent in. Because the lender had been taken over by another bank he was unable to get the paperwork necessary for the deadline before Sir Thomas Legg made his final ruling on what individual MPs should pay back.