Bill Cash, a senior Conservative MP, claimed more than £15,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses to pay his daughter rent for her London flat – even though he owned a home closer to Westminster.
Mr Cash designated a west London flat owned by his daughter, Laetitia, as his “second home” for parliamentary expenses during 2004 and 2005.
During the period he was renting the flat, Mr Cash owned a flat in Pimlico — a short walk from Parliament.
He said on Thursday that he was not living in the Pimlico property nor renting it out at the time. It was not clear why he did not live in this flat — although he has designated it as his second home since 2005. His main home is a country house in Shropshire.
Shortly after the MP stopped claiming money for his daughter’s flat, Miss Cash, 35, who is hoping to become a Conservative MP and is on David Cameron’s “A list” of preferred candidates, sold the property for a £48,000 profit.
She had owned the apartment for less than a year and a half, and for more than 12 months of that period her father had paid her £1,200 a month in rent from taxpayer funds.
Following the move, Mr Cash, a leading Eurosceptic who has regularly rebelled against the Conservative leadership, nominated two private members’ clubs as his “second home” for a three-month period.
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