Tory MPs - including a minister - have claimed hundreds of pounds in driving fines on expenses.
Energy minister Amanda Solloway claimed back an £80 fixed penalty notice given to her for a driving offence in London in July 2020, which she listed as “MP travel expenses”.
Taxpayers were also forced to pay fines for Tory MPs Simon Hoare and Bim Afolami, as well as by SNP MP Dave Doogan, according to the Independent.
The expenses were approved and paid by the Westminster expenses authority, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, between 2019 and 2022.
IPSA has now admitted it had been done incorrectly and said it would contact MPs to ask for the money to be repaid.
It marks yet another sleaze scandal for Rishi Sunak after a row erupted over Suella Braverman seeking special treatment after getting caught speeding.
The Home Secretary asked civil servants to enlist her on a speed awareness course - which would be a private matter rather than Government business. She has since accepted penalty points on her licence and paid the fine.
Shadow Commons leader Thangam Debbonaire told the Independent: “While Rishi Sunak’s MPs break the rules and try and make the taxpayer pick up the bill, working people are left struggling to cope with the soaring Tory cost of living crisis.
“Support arrangements exist for MPs so we’re able to represent our communities in Parliament. Tory MPs flouting the rules damages public confidence in the system.
“Tory MPs flouting the rules damages public confidence in the system. Rishi Sunak must clamp down on the rulebreakers in his party and get on with delivering for the British people.”
Sir Alastair Graham, former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, told the Independent: “It’s scandalous. If the home secretary can pay her fine for speeding, then everybody else should pay their fixed penalty notices.
“MPs are ordinary citizens like the rest of us, and if they’ve breached the regulations for driving then they have to pay the fixed penalty notice like the rest of us.”
He added that “on the whole” IPSA had done a “decent job” running the MPs’ expenses system but said that the revelations showed there were “clearly weaknesses in their system that they’re not carefully checking”.
“It’s very clear in all the codes and everything that you have to obey the law, therefore your driving has to be up to a standard that avoids having any further expense out of public funds,” he said.
Ms Solloway and Mr Afolami told the newspaper the expenses were submitted in error, and both confirmed they had repaid the charges after being approached by the paper.
The offices of the other MPs have not yet responded.
A spokesperson for IPSA said: “MPs are not allowed to claim for penalty charges and fines under IPSA rules. Paragraph 3.26 of the Scheme of MPs’ Staffing and Business Costs clearly states that these fines are not claimable.
“IPSA’s checks failed in some cases to identify these claims and some of them were paid. We will contact MPs and ask them to repay, where appropriate. We have changed our process to ensure any future such claims are not paid, and will reiterate the scheme rules to MPs.”
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