UK Culture secretary ordered to apologise over mortgage expenses

London: The culture secretary, Maria Miller, has been asked to apologise to parliament and repay £5,800 (Dh35,351) following an inquiry into her expense claims during which she breached the MPs’ code of conduct by failing to fully cooperate.

A report by the Commons committee for standards found that she had overclaimed the money on her mortgage in 2009.

She has also been criticised for giving the committee and the commissioner for standards incomplete documentation and fragmentary information.

“We regret that she did not also provide the commissioner with the substantive information and supporting documentation she required,” the report concludes.

However, the committee did not find evidence to back claims that she should not have housed her parents in a home for which she was claiming taxpayers’ money. The committee has also found that a majority of her claims for mortgage payments were justified.

Miller, who could still face a battle to hang on to her cabinet job, despite having received the backing of Downing Street in advance of the report, is expected to make a statement to the House of Commons at noon on Thursday.

Miller became MP for Basingstoke in 2005 and designated the house in Wimbledon as her second home, saying that she spent most of her time in a rented house in her constituency. Between 2005 and 2009, she made claims on the Wimbledon home, but stopped claiming in the wake of the expenses scandal.

According to documents filed in 2008, Miller had a mortgage of around £525,000 on the house purchased in 1995 for £234,000. In December 2012, the Telegraph reported that Miller’s parents were living in the house.

The rules relating to MPs’ parents were clearly set out by the parliamentary watchdog in 2009, when John Lyon, the parliamentary commissioner for standards at the time, said parents should not share a property funded by the taxpayer.

Tony McNulty, the former Labour MP, resigned as a minister after letting his parents live in a taxpayer-funded house.

Last week, it was reported that Miller made a profit of more than £1 million on the property, which was sold in February. The source close to Miller added: “It is not surprising that London houses go up in value well over a decade after they are first bought. It is also not unusual for people to move house.”

Miller said in a statement: “I have accepted the committee’s report in full and I will apologise. I am pleased that the committee has dismissed the allegation made against me by a Labour MP.”

Downing Street said she had David Cameron’s “very strong and very warm support”.

The prime minister’s spokesman said the approach she was taking by accepting the report and apologising was “absolutely the right one”.