Lady Sylvia Repays Westminster Expenses

North Down MP, Lady Sylvia Hermon has revealed she has paid back more than £2,700 in Parliamentary expenses.

She said that she 'over-claimed' for rent on a London flat between 2005 and 2006.

The Ulster Unionist MP said she only discovered the error when she contacted the Fees Office on Monday.

Lady Sylvia, widow of former RUC boss, Sir Jack Hermon, who died last November after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease, had believed all her claims were above board.

She said she was well aware of the public mood and shared the very real sense of outrage over revelations in recent days about "the most outrageous expenses claims by MPs".

She said when she was elected in 2001 she rented a small one-bedroom flat about 20 minutes walk from the House of Commons, three years later swapping it for another slightly nearer.

But when her husband was admitted to hospital early last year she ended the tenancy and since then had no second home, choosing instead to spend as much time with Sir Jack as possible and to stay occasionally in a hotel when there was a crucial late night vote.

Therefore her only claims were rent, council tax, telephone and electricity for the flats, she said.

The BBC has today reported that she phoned the Fees Office only to discover it had overpaid for two months rent between 2005-6.

"Even though I immediately reimbursed the House of Commons with the £2,730, I remain profoundly upset and embarrassed.

"I'm also very angry that the Fees Office did not draw my attention to my mistakes at the time, especially as I had on various occasions specifically written on claim forms that I wanted them to be checked," she said.

See: Minister To Repay £41k Home Expenses Claim

(BMcC/JM)