Tony McNulty forced say to sorry for using taxpayers' cash to subsidise parents

Published on Thursday 29 October 2009 21:06

FORMER minister Tony McNulty apologised yesterday and promised to repay more than £13,000 in second-home allowances, which he claimed on a house where his parents live.

In a statement to the Commons, Mr McNulty said he accepted the ruling of the Commons standards and privileges committee, which found he had effectively been "subsidising" his parents from public funds.

In a report to the committee, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, John Lyon, found Mr McNulty was entitled to claim on the house in his Harrow constituency, although it was only nine miles from his main home.

However, he said the former employment and Home Office minister had overclaimed in relation to the time he spent there in connection with his parliamentary duties.

As a result, Mr McNulty and his parents, who were living rent-free at the property, had "obtained a benefit from parliamentary funds to which he was not entitled".

In his statement to MPs, Mr McNulty said he had followed the guidance given by the Commons Fees Office, but accepted that Mr Lyon was entitled to take a different view of the rules and to impose it retrospectively.

"I should have been much clearer about my arrangements and taken steps to ensure that I was not open to any charge of benefit, and should have had much more concern for how these rules were perceived by the public, rather than just following them," he said. "I apologise for any part I have played in the diminution of the standing of this House in the eyes of the public.

"It is, however, time to move on. I apologise to the House once again without reservation."

Mr McNulty became one of the highest-profile casualties of the MPs' expenses scandal when he resigned as employment minister in Gordon Brown's government reshuffle in June.

He has already repaid 3,000 which he mistakenly claimed in council tax and mortgage interest payments.

Mr McNulty originally bought the house in Harrow for himself and his parents in 1998, after having returned to live with them following the break-up of his first marriage.

Since late 2001 or early 2002, he began designating as his main home the house of the woman who was to be his second wife – head of the schools inspectorate Christine Gilbert – in Hammersmith, west London.

Mr Lyon estimated that, between 2002-3 and 2007-8, Mr McNulty spent 52 to 66 nights a year in the Harrow property when he was on parliamentary duty.

That dropped to 33 nights for the nine months to last December.

Since 2004, Mr McNulty claimed 49,931 in running costs for the property – 69 per cent of the total of 72,187.12 – but the committee ruled he should have claimed no more than half, or 36,093.56.

"This had the effect of subsidising the living costs of Mr McNulty's parents from public funds," it said, and recommended he should repay the difference of 13,837.44.

Mr McNulty rejected suggestions that he had "got away with it" and should have been punished more severely.