Insurance MP in expenses probe

John Greenway, president of the Institute of Insurance Brokers (IIB), claimed £500 for gardening before selling his home for a £280,000 profit.

The Tory MP, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on insurance and financial services, also claimed for petunias, geraniums, fuchsia and lobelia plants, The Telegraph says.

Greenway also spent more than £3,500 on household goods and furnishings. Under the rulebook, MPs are only allowed to claim for garden maintenance.

He eventually sold the house for £493,000 in September 2006, having bought it some years earlier for £211,000.

Greenway told the newspaper that the sales procedure was done by the rulebook, and he had not claimed any of the moving costs or stamp duty from the taxpayer.

“All the claims which I have made over my 22 years in Parliament have been made in good faith and were approved by the fees office without query.

“The pattern of expenditure on my London home over a number of years has reflected precisely the expenditure and living costs that I pay for myself at my main home in North Yorkshire. The repairs and redecoration which I claimed for 2004 and 2005 were the first I claimed since buying the house and represent normal wear and tear on the property,” he said.