Synopsis: |
The complaint against Mr McNulty, the MP for Harrow East, was that he had claimed against his Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) in respect of a property in his constituency where his parents lived. The property was only nine miles from his main home, in Hammersmith, and eleven miles from Parliament. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards investigated the complaint (his report appears as an appendix). The ACA is designed to reimburse members for 'expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred when staying overnight away from their main UK residence.. for the purpose of performing Parliamentary duties'. The Commissioner found that Mr McNulty had an informal arrangement with his parents whereby they looked after the house and paid most household bills, but lived rent-free and made no contribution to mortgage or council tax, meaning that Mr McNulty effectively subsidised his parents' living costs. His claims against ACA reimbursed him from public funds for a significant part of that subsidy. Mr McNulty disputed that finding, stressing that he had not claimed everything to which he was entitled.The Committee concludes that Mr McNulty has breached the rules of the House, and recommends that he apologise to the House and repay the sum of GBP 13,837. |