article_snippet: Dozens of MPs are claiming taxpayer-funded expenses to rent homes or stay in hotel rooms in London while letting out property Dozens of MPs own nearby, it emerged last night.
article_snippet: 46 MPs have claimed more than £1.3million for rent or hotel rooms at the same time as receiving rent from properties that were often purchased and refurbished from taxpayers’ money.
article_snippet: Many of 46 MPs bought 46 MPs London properties with the help of the taxpayer under the previous expenses system that allowed claims for mortgage payments.
article_snippet: 46 MPs - including Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy (left) and former Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley (right) - have claimed more than £1.3million for rent or hotel rooms at the same time as receiving rent from properties .
article_snippet: But since the claims were banned by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) following the expenses scandal, 46 MPs have switched to renting out the properties 46 MPs own and instead claimed expenses for rent and hotels.
article_snippet: Under the current system, MPs are allowed to claim £20,600 a year in London rent and £150 a night for hotels.
article_snippet: Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy owns a property two miles from Westminster that Labour’s shadow culture minister Chris Bryant bought with taxpayer help.
article_snippet: Former Liberal Democrat defence minister Sir Nick Harvey (right) has charged the taxpayer £39,772  for the rent of a flat, despite owning a house in Lambeth .
article_snippet: Former Liberal Democrat defence minister Sir Nick Harvey (right) has charged the taxpayer £39,772 in expense claims for the rent of a flat, despite owning a house in Lambeth, which Former Liberal Democrat defence minister Sir Nick Harvey (right) has let out to tenants since the rule change.
article_snippet: Andrew Lansley, the former Tory health secretary, has claimed more than £7,440 since 2013 to stay in London hotels, despite owning a flat with Andrew Lansley, the former Tory health secretary wife in upmarket Pimlico, which was bought with help under the old expenses system.
article_snippet: SNP MP Angus MacNeil owns a flat in Lambeth, a short walk from the Houses of Parliament, which was paid for with taxpayer help.
article_snippet: MPs have been obliged to let out MPs own properties since 2010 because the new rules say MPs cannot claim mortgage interest
article_snippet: ‘Letting income covers the mortgage and other outgoings and is of course taxed.
article_snippet: It is not MPs’ fault that the new rules compel MPs to rent a separate flat to live in.’ Mr MacNeil blamed the new rules and said MPs should be allowed to claim for flats MPs own, as MPs did in the past.
article_snippet: My relatively few overnight stays in London (barely once a month in the last year) meant that my expenses claims would be lower for occasional hotel stays in sitting weeks than for the costs of maintaining a flat in Westminster.
highlights_snippet: Allowed to claim £20,600 a year in London rent and £150 a night for hotels .
  