After a 14-month investigation, Kathryn Hudson, Parliament’s standards commissioner, said earlier this year that the Culture Secretary Maria Miller should hand back £45,000 in over-claimed allowances for a house in south-west London.

However MPs on the Commons standards committee overruled the commissioner and said Mrs Miller would have to repay just £5,800 and apologise for her “attitude” during the inquiry.

Maria Miller then subsequently gave a 32 second apology. This is an insult to taxpayers at a time when her Government are hitting the poorest hardest.

We call for Maria Miller MP to either pay back the £45,000 fraudulent expense claims or resign.