Julie Kirkbride, the Conservative MP, used taxpayers’ money to fund a £50,000 extension to her constituency flat so that her brother could live in the property.
According to copies of documents seen by The Daily Telegraph, Miss Kirkbride told the Parliamentary authorities last year that she needed an extra bedroom to house her “growing family”.
She was therefore given permission to increase her mortgage by £50,000, leaving the taxpayer to pay the higher interest costs on the loan. However, it emerged that her brother, Ian, lived at the flat and did not pay rent. Her family had not increased in size since 2000.
Miss Kirkbride said the “arrangement” had “no cost to the taxpayer” but that claim was undermined yesterday when she admitted that she claimed for the costs of building the extra bedroom so that her brother and son did not have to share a room.
Miss Kirkbride said the “arrangement” had “no cost to the taxpayer” but that claim was undermined yesterday when she admitted that she claimed for the costs of building the extra bedroom so that her brother and son did not have to share a room.
Come on Iain Dale. Defend that.
“I would dearly love to be re-elected to the job that I simply adore and which has been very fulfilling and personally very satisfying for me over the last 12 years, but that is not my decision,” she said.