Minister’s trip to see parents in lockdown raises questions over expenses

He has claimed around £100,000 in expenses for a house in his constituency since he was elected.

Tory minister Robert Jenrick who was accused of flouting the coronavirus lockdown is facing questions after billing the taxpayer for around £100,000 in expenses.

The housing, communities and local government secretary has been claiming for rent and council tax for a house in his constituency, Newark in Nottinghamshire, despite claiming his main family home is 130 miles away in Herefordshire.

He said it was his family’s main home after it emerged he travelled 150 miles from London to the country pad near Leominster, despite having a £2.5million flat in the capital, MailOnline reports.

But his website says that he, his wife Michal and their three daughters ‘live in Southwell near Newark, and in London’.

Parliamentary expenses records show that he has claimed around £100,000 in rent, council tax and travel expenses since elected in a 2014 by-election.

Last night, one of Mr Jenrick’s neighbours in Herefordshire said the idea that the country manor was his main home was ‘codswallop’.

Read the latest updates: coronavirus news live

Mr Jenrick, 38, a successful commercial lawyer with a string of multi-million pound properties, is also under fire for claiming he understands what it is like to be ‘cooped up’. 

The minister told the BBC last week that he understood the plight of families crammed into small flats during the lockdown and the need to keep local parks open. 

He said: ‘I am very aware of how difficult this is already. ‘I am a father of young children. I know what it’s like to have a family cooped up…’ 

But Tory MPs reacted in fury on Saturday to the comments. 

One backbencher said: ‘Jenrick’s position was already pretty dire, to be honest. 

‘But to go on the radio and claim you understand what it’s like to be cooped up is an insult to my constituents who are enduring the lockdown in small flats.

‘Whether his family were already in that country pile of his or still in his London home, he can’t possibly say that. He really has to go.’ 

Another Tory MP said: ‘This really is stretching the definition of cooped up to farcical levels.’

It comes after Mr Jenrick stayed in his £2.5million London home for the first six days of the lockdown until March 29, when he travelled 150 miles to his country house in Herefordshire to be with his family.

Mr Jenrick he considers the Herefordshire property to be the family home – but his official Conservative website fails to mention his 17th-century Grade I listed country house. 

He and his wife are understood to spend most of the week in the capital because of Mr Jenrick’s ministerial work and his wife’s job as a partner for a major US law firm in the City.

Under the lockdown rules it has been promoted any travel to second homes is banned.

Scotland’s chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, was forced to resign at the weekend after visiting her second home twice.

In Australia, New South Wales Arts Minister Don Harwin resigned after leaving his Sydney apartment to stay at his Central Coast holiday home and was caught by police.

It comes after he last week defended visiting his parents after it emerged he had twice made non-emergency trips – despite repeatedly urging the public to stay at home.

Mr Jenrick made the 40-mile trip to see his elderly parents – an apparent contradiction of his own advice, The Guardian revealed.

A witness told the Guardian that they saw Mr Jenrick, 38, visiting his father and mother’s property at the weekend.

They said he was seen in the front garden of the detached house in a Shropshire village, where the pair, aged 79 and 69, live.

It is more than an hour’s drive from the MP’s house in Herefordshire.

Mr Jenrick has since admitted making the visit but said he went to drop off essential medicines and food to his parents, who are self-isolating.

He later tweeted: ‘For clarity – my parents asked me to deliver some essentials – including medicines.

‘They are both self-isolating due to age and my father’s medical condition and I respected social distancing rules.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.