MP Clare Short: I’ve done nothing wrong
CLARE Short today insisted “I am straight as a die” after she was accused of claiming thousands of pounds she was not entitled to from House of Commons expenses.
The high-profile MP for Birmingham Ladywood paid back the cash three years ago, after Commons officials noticed a mistake in her expenses claims.
Details of the £8,000 over-payment emerged when her expenses claims were published by a national newspaper.
But she said: “This is not a scandal. It is a genuine mistake.
“I didn’t repay the money because I was embarrassed, or scared of being found out. This was years before there was any suggestion of expenses being made public.
“I repaid the money because the fees office pointed out the error.”
Ms Short, the former Secretary of State for International Development, claimed back interest she was paying on a mortgage for her home in Handsworth.
Under House of Commons rules, MPs are allowed to claim back some of the cost of a second home if they have a property in their constituency and another in London.
But the error occurred after she exchanged an interest-only mortgage for a standard mortgage, in which she re-paid the capital cost of the property as well as the interest.
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