Tory MP axed for claiming £1,645 for his duck pond
A SENIOR Tory MP was sacked by David Cameron last night after it was alleged he tried to claim £1,645 on his expenses for a “duck island’’ for his pond.
Mr Cameron told Sir Peter Viggers to retire or lose the Tory whip after it was reported that he claimed £30,000 from the public purse for his garden.
The Gosport MP last night announced he would quit at the next election, becoming the third Tory, after Douglas Hogg and Anthony Steen, to announce their departures.
Sources said Mr Cameron was “absolutely furious’’ over the MPs expenses for his Hampshire home and added that Sir Peter, who represents the Electoral Commission in the Commons, would also repay a five-figure sum of money.
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It was an administrative error and it was of no financial advantage to me
In other allegations surfacing last night it was claimed that Tory whip Bill Wiggin claimed £11,000 for mortgage interest payments on a property which he owned outright.
But Mr Wiggin, an Eton contemporary of Mr Cameron’s, was understood to be safe in his post.
He was cleared of wrongdoing after convincing party leaders that he had made “an administrative error”.
He said he claimed what he was entitled to but for the wrong address and had not made a penny profit.
Sources said he would have been asked to resign had there been any suggestion of dishonesty or that he had profited from the mistake.
Mr Wiggin said he put the wrong address on his claims and meant them to relate to his London property, not his constituency home.
The sums he claimed matched those for the London home – although he had signed 23 statements for parliamentary officials declaring that his second home was in Herefordshire.
Mr Wiggin said: “It was an administrative error and it was of no financial advantage to me.’’
Labour MPs Elliot Morley and David Chaytor were suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party and referred to a disciplinary committee which will investigate their claims for mortgages which had been paid off, which they both say were errors.
