Tory minister ‘devastated’ after Independent reveals driving fine she put on expenses

Amanda Solloway said the expense claim had been a ‘genuine mistake’

Amanda Solloway (Sky News)

A government minister who claimed a driving fine on her MP's expenses has said she was "devastated" when she found out what she had done.

The Independent revealed this weekend that Amanda Solloway and other MPs had been reimbursed by parliament's expenses watchdog for the fixed penalty notices.

Speaking on Thursday the energy minister said: "When I had the news, I was just absolutely devastated. I wouldn't intentionally want to do anything [like that] – it was a genuine admin error."

The £80 fixed penalty notice issued to her while she was driving in London in July 2020 was listed under “MP travel expenses”.

Ms Solloway, who paid back the money when she was approached about the story, said the fine was for "a congestion charge".

"Obviously, as soon as I found out, I've paid it back and also making sure that I look at ways in the future making sure that this doesn't happen again," she told Sky News.

"But the fact is, it did happen, I paid it back, and I knew I would be likely to be asked about this today. However, I wants to come on one to say, you know, it's a genuine mistake, and I paid it back."

Other MPs to have claimed fines include Tory MP and select committee chair Simon Hoare, former Tory vice-chair Bim Afolami, and SNP MP Dave Doogan.

Ms Solloway and Mr Afolami said the expenses were submitted in error, and both confirmed they had repaid the charges after The Independent approached them. The offices of the other MPs are yet to respond.

The penalties claimed for were issued by Transport for London, which hands out fines to drivers who violate traffic laws, such as parking on double red lines, driving in buhas lanes, and wrongly using disabled bays.

The expenses were approved and paid by the parliamentary expenses authority IPSA (the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) – but after being approached by The Independent, it admitted it had been wrong to do so.

IPSA said it would be writing to the MPs to ask for the money to be repaid, and that it would also “reiterate” the expenses rules to them.

A spokesperson for IPSA said: “MPs are not allowed to claim for penalty charges and fines under IPSA rules. Paragraph 3.26 of the Scheme of MPs’ Staffing and Business Costs clearly states that these fines are not claimable.

“IPSA’s checks failed in some cases to identify these claims and some of them were paid. We will contact MPs and ask them to repay, where appropriate. We have changed our process to ensure any future such claims are not paid, and will reiterate the scheme rules to MPs.”