Ed Vaizey, a key ally of David Cameron, had £2,000 worth of furniture delivered to his London home when he was claiming his Commons allowance on a second home in Oxfordshire.
Mr Vaizey also charged more than £10,000 in stamp duty and legal fees to the taxpayer when he moved from rented accommodation to a house he bought in his constituency. Claims submitted by Mr Vaizey, a Conservative culture spokesman, show that his wife Alexandra ordered furniture worth £1,968.45 from the upmarket online retailer Oka in 2007.
Oka was co-founded up 1999 by Lady Annabel Astor, Mr Cameron’s mother-in-law. The shop says on its website that its “extensive furniture range includes painted, rattan, bamboo, sofas, beds, tables, chairs and armoires”.
Receipts submitted by Mr Vaizey show that he ordered a £467 two seat “Hurlingham” sofa and Carmargue chair, worth £544, an “ebony/brown” low table, worth £280.50 and a £671 Dordogne table in February 2007.
The Commons fees office knocked back the claim because the receipt said that the furniture was due to be delivered to the Vaizeys’ home address in west London. An official told Mr Vaizey that his claim was turned down because it “included an invoice from Oka in relation to an address which is different from that nominated as your home”.
The bill was later paid when Mr Vaizey, who entered the House of Commons in 2005, told the fees office that the furniture was intended for his designated second home in his Wantage constituency. He wrote: “I re-attach my claim for furniture as this furniture has been bought for my second home in Wantage.
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