MERIDEN MP Caroline Spelman is to repay £9,600 after an inquiry found she unintentionally misused House of Commons expenses.

A report by the official Commons watchdog concluded she had overpaid her assistant, Tina Haynes, allowing her to work as a nanny looking after Mrs Spelman’s three young children.

But it also found that the Conservative MP had no intention of breaking Commons rules.

Mrs Spelman is expected to keep her job as Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in David Cameron’s Shadow Cabinet. Crucially, the inquiry concluded that Ms Haynes had legitimately carried out administrative work for Mrs Spelman in a part-time capacity, and rejected claims that she was never anything other than a live-in nanny.

Senior Conservatives claimed this demolished claims in a BBC report, which had accused Mrs Spelman of simply using taxpayer’s money to pay for childcare. Mrs Spelman issued an apology, saying she had made a mistake when a new MP.

The Warwickshire MP has been a high-flyer in the Conservative Party but her career was in the balance after allegations emerged last year that she paid for childcare using parliamentary allowances. The row is thought to have forced David Cameron to delay a reshuffle of his top team. In January he finally acted to shift Mrs Spelman from party chairman to shadow communities secretary.