MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Tory leader orders MP to pay capital gains tax

Cameron MP: “I don't think it is right to get money from the taxpayer”

A British opposition Conservative frontbench MP who avoided paying capital gains tax on the sale of her taxpayer-funded second home will have to pay the money, party leader David Cameron has said.

Shadow justice minister Eleanor Laing insisted she was obliged by law to name the property as her principle residence for tax purposes.

But Mr Cameron said the practice was unacceptable and that anyone guilty of it should be expected to be punished by the internal party scrutiny panel he has set up to examine claims.

He said: “I don't think it is right to get money from the taxpayer for what you nominate as a second home and then to sell it and not pay capital gains tax.

”I put a stop to that immediately, even before the House of Commons, with my MPs.

“That applies for the future. For the past we go through the scrutiny panel and if people have got it wrong then money will have to be paid back.”

He added: “John Butterfill is another case and we are addressing that one, too”.

Asked if Ms Laing would follow Andrew MacKay in being forced out over expense claims, he said: ”Where appropriate, others will be removed from the front bench if they do not behave appropriately.

“I want to very tough, but I also want to be consistent and fair.”

The Daily Telegraph said Epping Forest MP Ms Laing avoided a £180,000 bill on profit from selling the property - two adjacent flats in Westminster on which she was said to have claimed more than £80,000 in allowances.