ONE of the region’s MPs is allowing a friend to live rentfree in a flat bought with taxpayers’ help while he claims expenses on a second London home, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Ashok Kumar, the MP for Middlesbrough South and east Cleveland, last night robustly defended the arrangement, insisted he had done nothing wrong, that his expenses claims had not breached Parliamentary rules and that he was a victim of the property slump.

Dr Kumar bought a second flat in 2005.

“It was to give me a decent standard of living, so I can do my job properly when I am away from home,” he said.

He said the first flat needed tens of thousands of poundsworth of repairs, which he could not afford, and then when property prices slumped he found its value was less than he had paid for it.

Rather than leave it empty, he allowed a friend to live in it – a “temporary” arrangement which he agreed had lasted two years.

He added: “It doesn’t cost the taxpayer any money for my friend to live there. I haven’t made a single penny out of it – in fact, rather than leave it empty, I have given someone a home.

“I want to sell it, but it needs £70,000 to £80,000 of repairs and I haven’t got the money for that.”

Dr Kumar volunteered the information that his friend lived rent-free in the flat, paying the utility bills and council tax.

He said: “If I had sold it, I would have been criticised for making a profit on the sale. I will sell it as soon as the market recovers and happily pay the capital gains tax on it.”

The arrangement came to light after the long-awaited publication of all MPs’ expense claims yesterday.

Dr Kumar’s claims show that in 2005, he spent nearly £10,000 on furniture for his new flat. Among the items were a sofa and chairs, a flatscreen TV and an easy chair with stool, and a TV aerial with a 16ft mast.

He said: “I have never spent ostentatiously, or bought expensive items. The new flat was completely unfurnished, so I bought essential things.

“The fees office has never returned any of my claims, or said I was claiming excessively.”

Dr Kumar’s receipts show that his liquid crystal display TV is worth £2,300, although he bought it in a sale for £1,000 and only charged the taxpayer £800.

But they also show that again in 2005, he billed the taxpayer nearly £800 for repairs to his original flat, which included work to “remove mirrors from false ceiling above bath. Re-fix mirrors”.

There is no mortgage on the first flat, but Dr Kumar revealed he used to claim the mortgage interest, which was typically £600 to £800 a month.

The receipts show that he claims £1,933.72 in monthly mortgage interest on his second home.

Yesterday’s publications also included claims for incidental expenses provision – or office costs – where Dr Kumar billed £149.98 for a digital camera, as well as up to £6,018 a year to distribute an annual report to constituents.

His communication allowance – the third category revealed – included the printing of 20,000 calendars that were posted to homes in Middlesbrough South and east Cleveland at a cost of £1,468.75.

The most frugal claims came when Dr Kumar’s London office staff stayed overnight in his constituency during Parliamentary recesses.

They stayed at The Three Fiddles pub, in Guisborough – where the receipts show a room costs as little as £25 a night.