Geoff Hoon, the transport secretary, claimed expenses on his constituency home while renting out his London house and living rent-free in a luxury grace-and-favour home.

Hoon, who as defence minister led Britain’s war in Iraq, lived out the conflict in Admiralty House, a government building. At the same time he rented out his London property. The rent he received has not been disclosed, but the terraced house had a rental value estimated at £18,000 a year. Hoon also claimed more than £70,000 on a third property, his constituency home in Derbyshire, during the six years he was defence secretary.

The transport secretary told The Mail on Sunday: “I only claimed whatever the rules allowed for. The [Commons] fees office was aware what was happening. Indeed, I was told to move into Admiralty House on security advice. I was told unless I went into secure premises I would have to have round-the-clock police protection at my home in London and that would cost the taxpayer a great deal more.”

Hoon and his wife, Elaine, have built up a property portfolio worth £1.7m, including a property in the Suffolk seaside town of Walberswick and a Westminster house bought for £635,000 in 2006.

Read the full article in The Sunday Times.


This is the man who, despite overwhelming evidence against Heathrow expansion, decided to go ahead with the third runway. We could put that down to an error of judgement.

This is the man who, by moving into a grace and favour apartment, renting out his London home and claiming for a third property in Derbyshire, "only claimed whatever the rules allowed for". We could put that down to a desire to bury his snout deeper into the trough.

But this is also the man who believes it is OK to condemn an entire village to oblivion while building up his own little property portfolio at the taxpayers' expense, and saying it's a tough decision. That's just immoral.

Hoon's ability to choose the wrong option almost every time would be laughable if it didn't negatively affect the lives of so many people.