"Allowable expenses"

Tory MP claims £5,000 for gates

The latest expenses revelations by the Daily Telegraph show a Conservative MP claimed almost £5,000 to have automatic gates installed at his home.Shadow business secretary Jonathan Djanogly said they are security gates and were installed at his Huntingdon constituency home on police advice.
The paper says the MP also claimed £13,962 for cleaning over four years.
It also reports claims from one Labour MP for a hotel with his girlfriend and another to fund a home for his friend.
According to the Telegraph, the wooden gates at Mr Djanogly's house cost £4,936 and can be opened by a remote control while he is still sitting in his car.
'I completely understand'
In a statement, the MP defended the gates as a measure to protect him from potential reprisal attacks by animal rights activists.
He said: "The automatic gates are integrated with a CCTV system which I installed with police advice after I had security threats following from my representation of constituents' interests at Huntingdon Life Sciences."
Mr Djanogly added: "I want to stress that I completely understand the public's concerns about MPs' expenses and my party's absolute determination to respond to that concern."
Other expenses claims by him highlighted by the paper include £13,962 for cleaning and £12,951 for gardening at his home, which the paper reports did not have a mortgage, over a four-year period.
Mr Djanogly said the cleaning and gardening claims were "allowable" expenses.
He has agreed to repay £25,000 after talking to the Conservative scrutiny panel set up by party leader David Cameron to study his MPs' claims.
Saturday's Telegraph also reports Labour MP Khalid Mahmood claimed for £1,350 to stay in a five-star west London hotel with his girlfriend, after separating from his partner, with whom he shared a home in Wembley, north west London.
The paper says another Labour MP, Northern Ireland Minister Paul Goggins, allows a university friend to live rent-free in a home that is paid for by the taxpayer.
And in a fourth set of claims published in Saturday's edition, Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin used £50,000 in expenses to pay his sister-in-law rent.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8064794.stm