Minister Malik in new expenses row
Fresh questions are being asked about the Parliamentary expenses of Government minister Shahid Malik.
It is reported that he claimed at least £6,500 for a second office alongside his taxpayer-funded constituency office.
An inquiry cleared him of breaching the ministerial code, but there are now calls for the PM to publish the report of his independent adviser on the code, Sir Philip Mawer.
Dewsbury MP Mr Malik stepped down as justice minister last month while Sir Philip examined claims that he rented his three-bedroom constituency home at below-market rates of less than £100 a week, creating a potential conflict of interest.
It was announced on Monday that Sir Philip had found no breach of the code as the rent said to have been charged was "reasonable in the light of market and other commercial considerations".
But Downing Street said the report would not be published "because it went into too much detail about Mr Malik's personal matters and therefore was not appropriate for the public domain".
Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat MP and freedom of information campaigner, told the Telegraph: "Gordon Brown has fallen at the first fence on the transparency course. If Mr Malik has been cleared, as we are told, why not publish the report?"
And the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Sir Christopher Kelly, said he stood by the committee's recommendation in a 2003 report which led to the establishment of the post of independent adviser that his reports should be published.
"I am not commenting on the Shahid Malik case but in the interests of public confidence, reports from the adviser - in line with those of the parliamentary standards commissioner - should be made public," said Sir Christopher.
The Telegraph - which has obtained details of all MPs' Parliamentary allowances - reported that Mr Malik claimed £200 a month for about three years in office expenses to cover the cost of what he referred to only as "Office 2". The paper quoted Mr Malik as saying that "Office 2" claims related to "additional office space", but said he declined to say where it was or who he rented it from.
