Hoon follows Darling with expenses repayment
By Alex Stevenson
Transport minister Geoff Hoon became the latest member of the Cabinet to repay allowances today.
Mr Hoon “accidentally” overpaid £384 after making a similar error to chancellor Alistair Darling, who agreed to repay around £700 yesterday.
He claimed for his TV licence, home insurance and a gas maintenance bill at his Derbyshire second home for a year in advance in 2006.
But after he was demoted to Europe minister that year he bought a London flat and ‘flipped’ his second home designation, beginning to make claims on this instead of the Derbyshire property.
Because he had paid bills in advance he was claiming for two houses on second homes allowance at once.
“After I left Admiralty House there was an entirely inadvertent overlap in bill payments. This was entirely accidental,” Mr Hoon said in a statement.
“As soon as this was brought to my attention I repaid £384 for the additional months of TV licence, British Gas homecare agreement and home insurance, covering the months remaining in the year after I moved.”
Gordon Brown is chairing Cabinet this morning as ministers walk to what may be their last such meeting.
Reshuffle speculation is rife across Westminster, with gossip centring on whether Mr Darling will be replaced in No 11 by children’s secretary Ed Balls.
His mistake centred on his claiming expenses for two homes in similar circumstances. He received allowances for the flat he had moved out of from September to December 2007, having paid for them in advance earlier that year.
