Cheshire East MPs claim over £1,750 for energy bills

Cheshire East MPs claimed over £1,750 from taxpayers to pay their annual energy bills.

Congleton's MP Fiona Bruce claimed the most with £911,74 paid out of the public purse to cover her electricity bill.

Eddisbury MP Stephen O'Brien claimed £583.60 for his gas and electricity bills while Macclesfield's David Rutley asked for £267.64 towards his electricity costs.

But both Crewe & Nantwich's MP Edward Timpson and Tatton's Chancellor MP George Osborne claimed nothing at all. The total for Cheshire East's five Conservative MPs was £1,762.38.

Across the country 340 MPs, including Government ministers, claimed more than £200,000 to cover the cost of their energy bills in the 12 month period to March 2013.

Bills costing more than £1,000 were submitted by 41 MPs while 78 made claims over £500. A total of 309 MPs made no claims at all.

The MP who claimed the most was Stratford-on-Avon Conservative, Nadhim Zahawi, who claimed £5,822 towards the costs of heating his £1 million constituency home. The MP also owns a £5 million detached house London.

Claims against the public purse to supplement MPs' energy costs are within parliamentary rules but they come against a background of spiraling cost of gas and electricity for average consumers.

Other local MPs to claim on their energy bills this year were:

£1,374.97: Paul Farrelly, Labour, Newcastle-under-Lyme
£1,330.48: Tristram Hunt, Labour, Stoke-on-Trent Central
£1,067.76: Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative, Shrewsbury & Atcham
£824.43: Graham Evans, Conservative, Weaver Vale
£408.33: Owen Paterson, Conservative, Shropshire North
£356.27: Robert Flello, Labour, Stoke-on-Trent South
£330.78: David Wright, Labour, Telford
£200.00: Andrew Miller, Labour, Ellesmere Port & Neston
£64.18: Mark Pritchard, Conservative, Wrekin
£49.57: Joan Walley, Labour, Stoke-on-Trent North
Nothing: Stephen Mosley: Conservative, Chester

The maximum an MP can claim for their second home allowance in a year is £20,100 and this figure includes claims for gas and electricity bills.

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