George Osborne ordered to repay £1,666 in MPs' expenses

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, was today ordered to repay £1,666 to the Commons authorities for an unintentional breach of the rules relating to parliamentary expenses. The Commons standards and privileges committee said in a report that Osborne's mistakes were "unintended and relatively minor" and that the MP received wrong advice from the Commons officials about his expenses claims. The committee made its comments following a complaint about the way Osborne used the second-home allowance to fund a property in his Tatton constituency. The committee said that Osborne had received "no significant financial benefit" from the way the rules were breached and it accepted that he had tried to minimise the cost of his claims. It also criticised the Commons authorities for the advice they gave to Osborne "even under the relatively relaxed allowances regime of 2001". The complaint was submitted to the parliamentary commissioner for standards by Laurie Burton, the chairman of Tatton Labour party. He accused Osborne of breaking Commons rules because for two years Osborne designated his Tatton property as his main home even though he was using the second-home allowance to fund it and because he later claimed for mortgage payments not covered by the rules. Osborne bought a home in Tatton before he became an MP in 2001. He raised a loan to pay for it by increasing the mortgage on his London home. After he was elected, Osborne nominated his Tatton home as his main home and used the second-home allowance to pay for the interest payments on his London mortgage. In doing so, he was following the advice of the Commons fees office. But today's report says that the advice was "flawed" and that Osborne should have designated Tatton as his second-home because he was claiming money that he actually needed to fund the cost of the Tatton property. The committee said that this was a technical breach of the rules and that there was "no loss to public funds". In 2003 Osborne tidied up his arrangements. He designated London as his main home and raised a new mortgage to pay for his Tatton property, using the second-home allowance to fund it. But in 2005 Osborne increased the value of his mortgage to pay for repairs worth £10,000 and to cover other costs worth £25,000 associated with buying the house. In 2005-06 and 2006-07 he used his Commons expenses to pay some of the interest on the new part of the loan. The committee said that Osborne claimed £785 and £1,151 in those two years which he was not entitled to claim. But it said that, again, he was following "flawed" advice from the Commons authorities. In response to the report, Osborne said: "I am happy to accept the committee's report. I am glad that they acknowledge that any breaches of the rules were not intentional, not major, and did not provide me with any significant financial benefit. "As the committee appreciate, I always sought to minimise the cost of my expenses to the taxpayer, and followed the advice I was given. The committee has now decided that advice was flawed. "Last year I offered to pay back any money that had been inadvertently overclaimed due to the flawed advice I received, and the committee has accepted that offer. "I understand the damage the expenses crisis has done to parliament, and the paramount importance of restoring trust in our politics. I want to ensure that the claims I have made are entirely beyond reproach." Burton said: "He seems to have made a lot of mistakes that were not considered serious. I wouldn't trust him with my finances, let alone the country's. "He lost paperwork, made mistakes and has been made to pay money back. I'm surprised that several breaches are not considered serious. The House of Commons seems to be saying that MPs can claim up to the limit regardless."