Culture Secretary Maria Miller accused of expenses fiddle
The Telegraph has published allegations that Culture Secretary Maria Miller has been less than scrupulous in her handling of her expenses – after establishing that her parents lived in her taxpayer funded second home.
Despite being warned against publication by her advisers, due to her intimate role in implementing regulation of the press following the Leveson report, the paper chose to so anyway in order to highlight the dangers of politicians being handed a role that entails oversight of the press.
Miller’s advisers heavily lent on the title to hold fire on the story citing her position and later accused The Telegraph of timing its disclosure to overshadow an announcement about same-sex marriage.
The Culture Secretary claimed more than £90k for the home between 2005 and 2009 after claiming that her parents lived with her family as ‘dependants’.
Former Labour Minister Tony McNulty was fined £13k in 2009 for a very similar arrangement.
Miller wrote in a letter to the Telegraph: “Irrespective of whatever you are investigating, I cannot see a justification for this family intrusion. I should be grateful if you could confirm that you now understand the basis of my concern and that on reflection this could have been handled differently.”