MP must repay £21,000

THE MP for Kingstanding has been found to have breached expenses rules and will now repay around £21,000 he paid to rent his sister's flat.

Siôn Simon (Lab, Erdington) sought taxpayers' money to pay for rent on a north London flat which belonged to his sister, Ceri Erskine, which is against Second Home Allowance rules.

Mr Simon had rented the flat for £1,000 per month between 2003 and December 2007. A rule change in April 2006 specifically prevented MPs from renting property belonging to their family.

The Minister for Creative Industries, a former columnist for the Daily Telegraph, which has unedited access to MPs' expenses claims, said he had "no notion" of the rule change until contacted by the paper on December 17.

In October, in the same newspaper, the issue of MPs paying rent to family for second homes made headlines, when a Conservative member breached the same rule as Mr Simon.

Tory MP Bernard Jenkin received the largest repayment demand, following Sir Thomas Legg's enquiry into expenses claims, when he was asked to repay £63,000 he paid to his sister-in-law for renting his constituency home.

Mr Simon has agreed to pay back the expenses he claimed.

"I accept full responsibility for this mistake and apologise unreservedly," he said. "I will agree with the House authorities a schedule for repayment of rent claimed between April 2006 and December 2007."

Mr Simon added he had gained permission in writing from the House authorities for the rent payments under the Additional Costs Allowance.