TONY BLAIR could face scrutiny over funding for his property portfolio after details of the former Prime Minister’s claims were reported in The Sunday Telegraph.

Mr Blair took out a £30,000 mortgage in Trimdon, County Durham, shortly after he was elected as an MP in 1983.

He later remortgaged it for about £90,000 to cover the cost of improvements and renovations, according to the newspaper.

Although Mr Blair did not break parliamentary rules, dozens of MPs appear to have used similar strategies to build property portfolios, leading to suggestions that they “played the system”.

Mr Blair remortgaged the property for a second time at the end of 2003.

He secured a loan of £296,000 from the Cheltenham and Gloucester, on a house that was worth up to £300,000 at the time.

The Sunday Telegraph claims suggest that the lender may have taken into account Mr Blair’s ability to claim part of the interest on his expenses, when it agreed the mortgage.

The additional £206,000 which Mr Blair borrowed on top of the original purchase price and cost of renovations, was enough to cover the £182,500 deposit he put down a house in London, which was also bought with a Cheltenham and Gloucester mortgage.

His claim forms for the additional costs allowance for 2004-7, when he stepped down from Parliament, also showed that he claimed thousands of pounds for cleaning, utility bills and food.

Among the claims were an annual newspaper bill of £1,167.48, regular bills for his Orange mobile phone and £515.75 for the delivery and installation of a dishwasher.

A spokesman for Mr Blair told The Sunday Telegraph: “Mr Blair only claimed back the interest repayments on the portion of the mortgage which covered the purchase price and improvements to the house. There was no cost to the taxpayer in the rest of the money raised against the property.”