MP stripped of £65,000 home grant

Labour MP Harry Cohen was yesterday ordered to forfeit his £65,000 resettlement grant for a "particularly serious breach" of parliamentary rules.

The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee ruled that he designated a house in Colchester, Essex, as his main home even though he was not living there for long periods and rented it out.

“Mr Cohen’s breach was particularly serious and it involved a large sum of public money,” the committee said.

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The committee said Mr Cohen should also make a public apology for his conduct on the floor of the Commons.

An investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, John Lyon, found that Mr Cohen had consistently designated the house in Colchester as his main home since he bought it in 1998.

It enabled him to claim the second homes allowance on a succession of properties in his Leyton and Wanstead constituency in east London.

However, from 2004 to 2008, Mr Cohen and his wife spent most of their time living in the constituency, while periodically letting out the Colchester house to tenants on six-month leases.

During that period he claimed and received more than 70,000 in second homes allowances.

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