ALDERSHOT MP Gerald Howarth tried unsuccessfully to appeal against a ruling ordering him to repay expenses claims for gardening work at his second home.

The Conservative, whose constituency covers Aldershot, Farnborough, Yateley and Blackwater, was told by Sir Thomas Legg in October last year to repay £894 of a £1,894 gardening bill he charged to the taxpayer in 2004/05.

His decision to appeal over the demands of Sir Thomas, whose report into the MPs’ expenses affair was published on Thursday, meant he was among a small group of just 70 MPs to do so.

While the original gardening bill was paid by the parliamentary fees office, and there was no individual limit on how much of an MP’s then £20,902 allowance could be spent on gardening, Sir Thomas set a retrospective limit of £1,000 a year for such work.

Retrospective limit

But Mr Howarth argued that as the gardening bill was a one-off expense, and he had spent no more than £125 a year on gardening for the next four years, he should not have to pay the money back.

He argued that it was unfair to set a retrospective limit, especially as his subsequent gardening bills were significantly lower.

However, Sir Paul Kennedy, the former judge who was appointed to officiate over appeals, wrote to Mr Howarth to tell him that while he "sympathised with his position", his appeal had been unsuccessful.

Sir Paul told Mr Howarth that it would be unfair to uphold his appeal when other MPs had been forced to pay back money as a result of the retrospective limits on gardening costs.

Mr Howarth told Get Hampshire that he had appealed because he felt Sir Thomas's rules had been "inequitable".

For more on this story, see the News & Mail, out on Friday, February 5.

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