MP to defend expenses at meeting

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Tory MP Jonathan Djanogly is to defend his expenses to party members amid fresh allegations about his conduct.

The shadow solicitor general will attend a special meeting in Huntingdon, called after he agreed to repay £25,000 in claims made since 2004.

A constituency party spokeswoman said it supported the MP and the meeting would "put their minds at rest".

The Huntingdon MP said all his expenses claims were both legal and within the parliamentary rules at the time.

Cleaning costs

Mr Djanogly has insisted he has done nothing wrong and his decision to repay £25,000 - one of the largest sums of any Tory MPs - was taken voluntarily, prior to the Daily Telegraph's first expenses allegations in May.

He said he made the move in acknowledgement of public anger over the expenses furore.

Thursday's meeting was requested by his constituency party association, and not by the MP himself.

An association spokeswoman said it would enable the MP to answer questions from its 200 members but she made it clear he would not be facing a confidence motion.

My claims were made within the law and the rules of the second home allowance scheme Jonathan Djanogly

The meeting comes as the Daily Telegraph has made further allegations about the MP's expenses claims.

It said, over a four year period, he claimed up to £640 a month to pay a number of students to clean his second home in his constituency.

The paper said one of those students had advertised herself as an au pair and that she lived in his main London home for most of the week.

It said this raised questions whether public money was being used to subsidise child care costs.

But Mr Djanogly, who has two children, said the woman in question only worked as a cleaner.

He said she lived rent free in his London home from Monday to Thursday, doing no work, and in his constituency home from Friday to Sunday while working there.

He said she had replied to a job advert placed by his wife on a cleaners' website and he was not aware she had subsequently placed an ad on an au pairing site after she had started working for him in October 2007.

'Valid claims'

The MP said he had not claimed for the student's board and lodging from his parliamentary allowance.

"However, I did claim an average of £65 per week in respect of the cleaning work that the cleaner undertook in my constituency home," he said.

"This was entirely commensurate with the cleaning work that they undertook and a valid claim."

He added: "I reconfirm my position that my claims were made within the law and the rules of the second home allowance scheme."

The MP has not made any claims for his second home since April and says he will not make any such claims until the system had been reformed.

Conservative MPs have repaid a total of £250,000 and a number of have said they will stand down from Parliament following criticism of their conduct.