Follett claimed £25,000 on security
Tourism minister Barbara Follett has become the latest senior figure dragged into the Commons expenses row after it emerged she has claimed more than £25,000 for security patrols outside her home.
The millionaire MP, who is married to best-selling novelist Ken, wanted the protection because she did not feel safe at her London property, according to material leaked to the Daily Telegraph.
The total bill for security patrols between 2004 and 2008 was £25,411.64, the newspaper reported.
The couple own a holiday home in Antigua, a house in Cape Town, a former rectory in her constituency in Hertfordshire which is their main residence, and a buy-to-let flat in south London.
But Mrs Follett nominated a property in Soho as her second home.
Although she does not claim mortgage interest payments, she does charge taxpayers for weekly "mobile security" patrols at the property, upkeep of its CCTV monitors and a burglar alarm system operated by BT.
The latest revelations emerged after desperate Commons officials called in Scotland Yard to investigate the leaking of explosive details of expenses claims.
MPs fear the drip-drip disclosure of material from a million receipts - which the House authorities had been preparing for publication in July after losing a long-running freedom of information battle - is doing irreparable harm to the reputation of British politics and parliament.
