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Maria Miller: Culture Secretary resigns amid expenses row Maria Miller resigns: Culture Secretary quits Cabinet amid expenses row
(35 minutes later)
The Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, has resigned following controversy over wrongly-claimed expenses. Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, resigned from the Cabinet today as she bowed to the chorus of criticism of her response to a parliamentary inquiry into her expenses.
In a letter to the Prime Minister David Cameron, Ms Miller said the row over her expenses "has become a distraction from the vital work this Government is doing". Hours before David Cameron faced tough questions about the controversy engulfing her, she fell on her own sword.  It had become clear she had lost the confidence of many of her fellow Conservative MPs.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "sad" at the circumstances of her departure and hoped she could make a return "in due course" but was accepting her resignation. In her letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Miller said she was resigning with “great regret”. She thanked Mr Cameron for his personal support but added: “ It has become clear to me that the present situation has become a distraction from the vital work this Government is doing to turn our country around.”
She writes: "It is with great regret that I have decided that I should tender my resignation as a member of the Cabinet. Ms Miller appeared to blame her downfall partly on her work implementing the Leveson inquiry proposals on newspaper regulation, which she said was always going to be “controversial for the press.” She did not apologise for her conduct.
"I am very grateful to you for your personal support but it has become clear to me that the present situation has become a distraction from the vital work this Government is doing to turn our country around." In his reply, Mr Cameron said he was “very sorry” she was quitting, telling her: “I hope that you will be able to return to serving the Government on the frontbench in due course, and am only sad that you are leaving the Government in these circumstances.”
In his response, Mr Cameron told her it was "important to be clear that the Committee on Standards cleared you of the unfounded allegations made against you, a point which has been lost in much of the comment in recent days". Ms Miller was cleared of misusing the expenses system by claiming £90,000 for her second home in Wimbledon, south London, in which she lived with her elderly parents. But she was criticised by the Parliamentary Standards Committee for the way she responded to the year-long inquiry. She apologised for this in the Commons last Thursday, but her statement lasted just 31 seconds and was seen by MPs in all parties as grudging and perfunctory.
Her resignation follows days of mounting public and political pressure on the MP to quit and signs she was losing support among Tory colleagues despite Mr Cameron's backing over allegations that she had overclaimed on expenses. Although she clung on to her job, the storm over her response failed to die down, with several newspapers and an online petition calling on her to quit.
Between 2005 and 2009 Ms Miller claimed more than £90,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses on her house in south-west London which she shared with her husband, children and parents. Today had been seen as a crucial day in her struggle to survive. Mr Cameron was expected to come under pressure over his refusal to sack her at Prime Minister’s Questions at lunchtime, and again this afternoon when she spoke at a private meeting of Tory MPs.  Their leaders have told Mr Cameron the row was causing huge damage to the party.
The Parliamentary Commissioner, Kathryn Hudson, began investigating her claims in 2012 after it was claimed that the claims were a breach of the rules on allowances for second homes. John Mann, the Labour MP who made the original complaint about Ms Miller’s expenses, claimed she had quit to spare Mr Cameron further embarrassment and reduce the damage to the Tories at next month’s local and European elections. “My reaction is 'about time too.' Maria Miller should have resigned immediately and when she didn't, David Cameron should have sacked her,” he said.
The Commissioner cleared Mrs Miller of making false expenses claims and said her parents had not benefited financially from the arrangements. The affair has already lead to calls for  reform of the system under which MPs police themselves over standards. Kathryn Hudson, the independent Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, recommended that Ms Miller repay £45,000 of expenses, but this was reduced to just £5,800 by MPs on the Standards and Privileges Committee, who have the final say.
However, she concluded the minister had overclaimed by £45,000 and ordered her to pay the money back. She also said Mrs Miller had wrongly designated the property as her second home.
The Standards Committee of MPs watered down the second home ruling and accepted Mrs Miller’s argument that she should only return £5,800.
Ms Miller also faced criticism over her aggressive approach to the investigation, for being slow to provide information and quick to send what were seen as veiled threats to the Commissioner.
The Culture Secretary made a brief apology last week in her constituency newspaper, The Basingstoke Gazette, where she said she was "devastated" over what had happened. "I have let you down", she said.
Her private secretary Mary Macleod accused the media of a “witch hunt” against Ms Miller because of her role in implementing the Leveson Report on newspaper standards and legislating for same-sex marriages.
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