Standards spotlight on MP’s allowances

PARLIAMENT’S standards watchdog has launched an investigation into claims that Culture Secretary Maria Miller wrongly used her MP’s second home allowance to pay for a house where her parents lived.

Prime Minister David Cameron has declared his “full support” for Mrs Miller after Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon announced he was launching
an inquiry following a complaint from Labour MP John Mann.

The affair has prompted a war of words between Number 10 and Fleet Street, after two government aides contacted the Daily Telegraph to discuss a story it was planning to run on Mrs Miller’s expenses claims, and mentioned her role in the official response to the Leveson report on press regulation.