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| Ex-minister faces expenses rebuke | Ex-minister faces expenses rebuke |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| Former minister Tony McNulty is to be rebuked for his expenses claims following an inquiry and asked to repay about £13,000, the BBC understands. | Former minister Tony McNulty is to be rebuked for his expenses claims following an inquiry and asked to repay about £13,000, the BBC understands. |
| Mr McNulty has been investigated by the parliamentary standards watchdog for claiming the second home allowance for a property in which his parents lived. | |
| The Harrow property was eight miles away from his main central London home. | The Harrow property was eight miles away from his main central London home. |
| Mr McNulty, who has maintained he did not break the rules, is likely to be asked to apologise to Parliament. | Mr McNulty, who has maintained he did not break the rules, is likely to be asked to apologise to Parliament. |
| Criticism | |
| If he does, he will become the second senior Labour figure to publicly apologise for their actions regarding the second home allowance after former home secretary Jacqui Smith did so earlier this month. | |
| A report by Parliament's standards watchdog into Mr McNulty's conduct will be published on Thursday. | |
| It is up to the Standards and Privileges Committee of MPs to decide what sanctions, if any, the former Home Office minister should face. | |
| However, it is understood he will be asked to repay some money. | |
| Mr McNulty left the government in June after months of criticism about his expenses claims, first highlighted by a Sunday newspaper. | |
| His case was referred to the standards commissioner John Lyon by the Tory MP Greg Hands, one of a handful of MPs' cases he is investigating. | |
| Since 2002, Mr McNulty claimed £60,000 for the house in his Harrow constituency, in north-west London, where his parents live. | |
| Mr McNulty lived in the house - which he owns - before his 2002 marriage to second wife Christine. He then moved to her home in west London. | |
| He has defended the arrangement, saying he continued to use the property on weekends and he did not breach any rules. | |
| MPs are facing a radical overhaul of their expenses regime, according to leaked details of recommendations by the Kelly committee asked to draw up reforms to the current system. | |
| Among its reported proposals are that MPs should no longer be able to employ relatives and those living within a 60-minute train journey of London will no longer be able to claim money for a second home. | |
| Some MPs have expressed misgivings about the proposals and the likelihood they will not be given a chance to vote on them. |