Alistair Darling accused of 'doing a Jacqui Smith'
By Glen Owen
Last updated at 10:05 PM on 14th February 2009
Alistair Darling took cheap lodgings with one of the peers at the centre of the 'cash for amendments' scandal while he was claiming nearly £20,000 a year in accommodation expenses.
Before he moved into his Downing Street apartment in 2007, the Chancellor was bedding down in a South London flat owned by Lord Moonie, one of four Lords accused last month of offering to influence legislation in exchange for money from lobbyists.
According to electoral roll records, Mr Darling rented the Kennington flat - which Lord Moonie bought from Gordon Brown in 1992 - between 2003 and 2006. Lord Moonie, who was also living there at the time, sold the flat for £265,000 in 2006.
Alistair Darling in 2006, when he was renting a flat owned by Lord Moonie, right
During the time Mr Darling stayed there, a typical rent for that kind of accommodation in that area would be around £125 a week.
Over that three-year period, Mr Darling claimed £50,183 - an average of £321 a week - on his second-home allowance.
Up until 2004, under Commons rules, Mr Darling was obliged to nominate his London digs as his main home and his £1million family home in Edinburgh as his second home.
Last night, it was unclear whether he had kept London as his main residence but between 2001 and 2007 he claimed a total of £101,406 on his second-home allowance.
Mr Darling's arrangement bears certain similarities to the row involving Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's expenses for a 'second home'.
Between 2003 and 2005, Lord Moonie claimed an average £387 a week on his MP's second-home allowance - a significant amount given that he bought his constituency home in Kirkcaldy for just £60,000 in 1985.
If he was nominating his flatshare with Mr Darling as his second home then he was claiming more than three times the market rent from taxpayers.
Mr Darling bought the Edinburgh house where he lives with his wife Margaret - who was brought up by a single mother on an Edinburgh council estate - and their two teenage children for £570,000 in 1998.
Experts predict it would now easily be worth £1million, despite the economic downturn.
Neither Mr Darling nor Lord Moonie was available for comment last night.
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