Madeleine Moon, the MP named “Furniture Parliamentarian of the Year”, spent thousands in furniture shops near her Welsh constituency house and claimed the money back on her London designated second home allowance.
Mrs Moon, Labour chairman of the House of Commons Furniture Industry Group, submitted at least 19 receipts totalling more than £4,000 for fixtures and fittings either bought in Wales or delivered to her house there.
MPs may use their Additional Costs Allowance to run a second home if they consider it necessary to perform Parliamentary duties. They are not permitted to make claims for their designated main residence.
After being elected MP for Bridgend, mid Glam in 2005, Mrs Moon bought a small flat in south London and designated it as her second home. But the records show that over the last four years she has regularly submitted claims for items bought in shops in Cardiff, Swansea and Bridgend. She also had furniture delivered to her seafront house in Porthcawl.
Among the furniture which Mrs Moon had delivered there was a £769 coral “triad” sofa from Marks & Spencer, and £683.56 in furnishings, including a bedside table and pillows, from Ikea. Both firms have outlets in London. She also bought a dining table and four chairs from a Swansea shop at a cost of £399, and spent £818.89 on a DVD player and television at Currys in Bridgend in July 2006.
Mrs Moon bought at least four sets of bedding in four years in shops in Wales and London. Mrs Moon said that she went to outlets such as Ikea in Cardiff because as a new MP in 2005 she did not know where to shop in London. Mrs Moon was buying items in Wales as late as May 2008, which she claimed were for her flat in the capital.
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