MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Controversial expenses anticipate “big changes” for British MPs

Beckett, is accused of profiting from the 'three homes' loophole

British Members of Parliament have been warned they face “big changes” in their system of pay and expenses as Housing Minister Margaret Beckett became the latest member of the Government to become embroiled in controversy.

A London evening newspaper reported Mrs Beckett had been living in official grace-and-favour homes while renting out a London flat and claiming parliamentary allowances on another house. Chancellor Alistair Darling and Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon also benefited from similar arrangements, but all three ministers deny doing anything wrong.

They insist they were acting within Commons rules - but the Leader of the Commons, Harriet Harman, acknowledged the disclosures were damaging Parliament. She said there would be “big changes” when the Committee on Standards in Public Life publishes its review of the whole system of MPs pay and expenses - which was commissioned by Gordon Brown - towards the end of the year.

“There needs to be much clearer rules and tough enforcement so that the public can have confidence that MPs are getting on with their job and that public money is not being abused,” she said.

“We recognise that there is a lack of public confidence, people are concerned about the situation - and understandably so - and we are going to change the rules.”

According to London's Evening Standard newspaper, Mrs Beckett was given a grace-and-favour home in the 18th century Admiralty House when she became President of the Board of Trade following Labour's 1997 general election victory. She was said to have remained there for eight years before moving to another grace-and-favour flat in Carlton House when she became Foreign Secretary in 2006.

The paper said that between 2001-02 and 2006-07 she claimed £106,000 in Additional Cost Allowance (ACA) on a second home. She has also declared a London flat in the Commons Register of Members' Interests as “residential rented property”.

A spokesman for Mrs Beckett - who has not had a grace-and-favour home since losing her job as Foreign Secretary in 2007 - told the paper that she did not make any money from renting out the flat and was simply “covering costs”. “Nothing has been done outside the rules of Parliament,” the spokesman added.