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Source: Reuters -
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Conservative leader David Cameron said on Friday one of his party's senior MPs had "serious questions to answer" over 15,000 pounds he claimed in expenses to pay his daughter rent for a flat.
Bill Cash, MP for Stone in Staffordshire, designated his daughter's west London flat as his "second home" during 2004 and 2005 despite owning a property nearer Westminster, according to the latest expense revelations in the Daily Telegraph.
Cash, whose main home is in his constituency, did not live in or
rent out the flat he owned at the time, saying his son lived there
instead.
Instead he claimed 1,200 pounds a month to live in his daughter's
flat as a tenant.
His daughter Laetitia, 35, who the paper said is hoping to become a Conservative MP herself, sold her flat for a 48,000 pound profit shortly after her father stopped claiming allowances for it.
"I do not agree with the suggestion that renting my daughter's flat, in the circumstances, was unreasonable," Cash said in a statement.
"I had to live somewhere to perform my parliamentary duties. The rent which was agreed was a reasonable rent and the tenancy agreement had been cleared by the Fees Office in advance."
After leaving his daughter's flat, Cash designated two London private members' clubs as his second home or stayed in hotels, which he said was a cheaper option for the public.
"My staying in these clubs/hotels meant that I was paying less than I would have done if I had been in a rented property at that time," he said.
Cameron has set up a scrutiny panel to examine all the expense claims of Tory MPs to see if any money should be paid back. Those who fail to comply will be expelled from the party.
Cash, he said, had questions to answer.
"He needs to answer those questions. He also needs to cooperate with the inquiries that the Conservative Party is holding," Cameron told reporters.
"Everyone knows the consequences of not participating in those inquiries. I've made that very clear."
Cash later said he would repay the money "in the context of having a fair hearing of the scrutiny committee and due process".
On Thursday, two female MPs became the latest political victims of the expenses row when they announced they would step down at the next election.
Conservative Julie Kirkbride and Labour's Margaret Moran said they would quit after details of their allowances were published.
Moran decided to step down as Luton South MP after the Telegraph said she had spent 22,500 pounds of taxpayers' money to treat dry rot at a seaside house she had designated as her second home, 100 miles from her constituency.
Pressure had been building on Kirkbride, 48, after the Telegraph
disclosed she had used public money to build an extension to her
constituency flat so that her brother could live there and help
look after her son.
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