TOBIAS ELLWOOD: up to the limit in incidental expenses (From Thisisdorset)

TOBIAS ELLWOOD: up to the limit in incidental expenses

8:30am Friday 19th June 2009 in

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A STATE-of-the-art Sony notebook costing £1,858, cash to refurbish his surgery room at Boscombe Conservative Club and pictures of him being sworn into the House of Commons.

These are among the allowances claimed by Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood and paid for by taxpayers in the last few years.

The recently published breakdown of every MPs’ allowances reveal that taxpayers picked up the £5,849 bill for new carpets and decoration at Boscombe Conservative Club in Haviland Road, where Mr Ellwood holds a surgery once a month.

The bill covers the redecoration and re-carpeting of the surgery room, and the halls, stairs and landing leading to the surgery room.

But Mr Ellwood has defended the claim, saying the work was necessary to meet health and safety standards.

Mr Ellwood also asked the Fees Office to pay him £250 a month for petty cash and subscribed to the Times, Economist and the Daily Echo at taxpayers’ expense.

He claimed £40 for prints of the moment he was sworn into the House of Commons and his maiden speech. And he claimed £1,858 for a Sony Vaio notebook (laptop), which took him over his yearly Incidental Expenses limit. The Fees Office reduced the amount they paid by £240.91.

“The laptop was not for me” said Mr Ellwood. “It was for the staff office and we need equipment. I do not think it was extravagant.”

Mr Ellwood’s second home allowances show that taxpayers are also paying more than £2,000 a month to cover the mortgage interest on his Bournemouth barn conversion.

These mortgage costs take up almost all of the £23,000 yearly limit, leaving Mr Ellwood little room to claim for anything else.

But this wasn’t always the case.

Previously, when his flat in Battersea, London, was his official second home, he claimed £894 a month for his mortgage, plus an assortment of bills, food and a variety of furnishings. These included £510 on two armchairs, £105 on a matching footstool, £1,145 on a bed and mattress and £225.86 on paint and home decorating equipment.