Clegg gets caught out by the Telegraph

Lib Dem MPs and their leader turn out to be just as adept at claiming expenses as the rest of the Westminster village

FIRST POSTED MAY 13, 2009

Amid all the ideas put forward by party leaders in the desperate race to clean up the expenses fiasco, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, is generally reckoned to have come up with one of the best: namely, that any MP who has made a profit on selling a property that was subsidised by the taxpayer via the controversial second home allowance, must repay a correct proportion to the public purse.

But while political commentators were muttering "highly commendable" yesterday, and Clegg was threatening to "come down like a ton of bricks" on any allowance abusers discovered in his ranks, the Daily Telegraph was preparing to go to press with its sixth day of leaked expenses details - and Clegg himself and his fellow Lib Dems are today's villains. Among the Lib Dem revelations are are:

♦ Nick Clegg, party leader. He has claimed the maximum possible on his second home allowance - £23,083 a year - and even exceeded his budget by more than £100. He did not chose to mention this while calling for urgent reform of the system. He has now promised to repay a phone bill that included charges for private calls to Colombia and Vietnam.

♦ Andrew George, MP for St Ives. On top of bills submitted for furniture, he has been claiming £847 a month from taxpayers for mortgage interest payments on a flat by the Thames in east London which appears to have been bought for his student daughter's use. Her name is on the insurance documents - and he stays in a hotel when he visits Westminster from his Cornish home.

♦ Sir Menzies Campbell, former party leader. He hired an interior designer to refurbish his flat in central London, spending nearly £10,000 of taxpayers' money on scatter cushions, a king-sized bed and a flat-screen television.

♦ Chris Huhne, home affairs spokesman. The man who lost the leadership race to Nick Clegg claimed for fluffy dusters and for a £119 trouser press that was delivered to his main home rather than his designated second address. He has agreed to pay back the money.

♦ Julia Goldsworthy, Treasury spokesman. She spent thousands of pounds just days before the deadline for using up her annual second home allowance. Items included a leather rocking chair from Heal's.