William Hague claimed £61,995 in taxpayers’ cash to help pay for a £1million second home in London – while pocketing around £800,000 a year from part-time jobs.
The millionaire Shadow Foreign Secretary, who David Cameron refers to as his “deputy in all but name”, bought the penthouse in 2003 for £685,000.
Despite earning hundreds of thousands of pounds through lucrative book deals, after-dinner speeches and directorships, Mr Hague – who also owns a £1million apartment in Yorkshire – used his MP’s living allowance to pay his mortgage interest and £4,000-a-year service charge, including use of a gym.
Last week he boasted of not having a mortgage on either property.
In fact, the canny former Tory leader cleared the mortgage on the fourth-floor London penthouse in October …just as MPs realised they faced being forced to publish details of all their expenses.
His claim of £61,995 between April 2004 and March 2007 is close to the maximum of £64,646.
In 2006 alone Mr Hague, 48, claimed £13,626 in mortgage interest and £4,083 towards the service and maintenance costs of the apartment he shares with wife Ffion.
He is able to pocket the cash under the Additional Cost Allowance (ACA) given to MPs to help them with the interest on their mortgage, or their rent or hotel bills “when staying overnight away from their main home for the purpose of performing Parliamentary duties”.
The figures up to October 2008 are yet to be published, but it is believed he could have claimed another £35,000.
The complex where Mr Hague has his penthouse is home to celebrities, businessmen and City bankers. It has underground car-parking, a gym and 24-hour security.
Read on for more details and photographs of this crime against the People: http://tinyurl.com/d8mt2k
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