More than 50 MPs change second-home designation

More than 50 MPs changed the designation of their taxpayer-funded second home in 16 months.

Tory grandee Douglas Hogg, who also put in a bill to clean the "moat" at his Lincolnshire property, started claiming for a London rather than constituency home in 2008-09.

Sir Peter Viggers, the "duckhouse" Conservative MP for Gosport, meanwhile, designated a different constituency property as his second home.

Cabinet Office minister Dawn Butler stopped claiming the housing allowance and instead took the London supplement. The Brent South MP was criticised for billing the taxpayer for a constituency home in north London while already having a house in Stratford.

Other London MPs who altered their second home designations last year included West Ham's Lyn Brown, Enfield North's Joan Ryan, and Brent North's Barry Gardiner.

There is no evidence that any of the MPs who changed the designation of their taxpayer-funded second homes last year did anything wrong. However, other MPs have been accused of "flipping" their second home to do up one property and then the second.

This year several MPs have stopped claiming for a second home and are instead staying in hotels.

Other MPs to change which property they declared to the Commons as their second home in 2008-09 include Tory MP couple Sir Nicholas and Ann Winterton. They had claimed tens of thousands of pounds to rent a London flat which they had put into a family trust.

But more Labour MPs - 38 in total - changed their second home designation between April last year and July this year, as did eight Lib-Dems.