Former Labour politician John Lyons has been allowed to return the money at the rate of just £100 a month
The Commons authorities face accusations of going soft on expenses abuses today after it emerged an ex-MP is still paying off an £18,000 debt more than 12 years after leaving parliament.
Former Labour politician John Lyons has been allowed to return the money at the rate of just £100 a month – suggesting he still has years to go until the full sum is cleared.
However, in some years he has paid less than the full £1,200. He has also not been charged interest.
The details – disclosed by the House of Commons authorities following a freedom of information request by MailOnline – sparked anger that politicians are being treated more generously than people who make honest mistakes on tax returns.
After the expenses scandal erupted in 2009, an audit by Sir Thomas Legg found hundreds of serving and former MPs had overclaimed a total of £1.12million.
The authorities tried to recoup the cash by either demanding repayments from sitting MPs, or withholding ‘golden goodbyes’ when they lost seats at an election.
Mr Lyons, who was MP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden between 2001 and 2005, was ordered to hand back £18,780 in mortgage interest after failing to provide supporting evidence for the claims.
Sir Thomas wrote: ‘No reply has been received from Mr Lyons to a number of letters sent to the address held by the House authorities.
‘In default of evidence to support payments for mortgage interest of £18,780.80 for 2004-05 and April 2005, I must regard these payments as having been invalid. Accordingly my recommendation is that Mr Lyons should repay the whole of this sum.’
Extraordinarily, according to the Commons disclosure, the former trade union official was subsequently permitted to clear the debt at a rate of £100 per month.
The House refused to give details of repayments before 2012, saying it had destroyed the records. But in 2012-13 Mr Lyons paid £1,100 and in 2013-14 just £500, while the repayment has been £1,200 in each of the last two years.
Mr Lyons, who is now aged 67, is still believed to have years to go until he has totally cleared the debt. His constituency was redrawn as East Dunbartonshire in 2005, and he lost to Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson.
Mr Lyons did not respond to requests from MailOnline for comment.
The details disclosed by the House of Commons authorities following a freedom of information request by MailOnline have sparked anger that politicians are being treated more generously than people who make honest mistakes on tax returns
Another ex-Labour MP, Helen Clark, was ordered to repay around £3,000. She cleared the debt in 2013, according to the disclosure.
A Commons spokeswoman said: ‘Two former MPs, Helen Clark and John Lyons, both began making payments in 2010 as part of an agreed schedule of repayment following the Sir Thomas Legg report. Details of the repayments are in the table attached.
‘Please note, Helen Clark’s debt was fully paid off in 2013. John Lyons is still repaying monies owed to the House, and a repayment agreement of £100 a month is in place.’
The House confirmed that no interest was being charged on the debts.
James Price, Campaign Manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be deeply upset to discover an MP is taking so long to repay money he wrongly received in the first place.
‘Why he should be allowed to pay it back more slowly than people who make honest mistakes on their tax returns is beyond me.
‘Mr Lyons is not even paying interest on what is effectively a taxpayer-backed loan, and he definitely should be, at the very least at the rate at which the government has to borrow money.’