MP Sarah Champion claims £17 poppy wreath expenses Published duration 15 March 2015

image caption Rotherham MP Sarah Champion claimed for the poppy wreath as "office costs"

An MP claimed £17 on expenses for the cost of a Remembrance Day poppy wreath.

Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, billed the taxpayer for the tribute as "office costs", describing it as "necessary expenses".

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) said MPs were not allowed to make such claims and was seeking repayment from Miss Champion.

She admitted the claim "should never have been made" and would reimburse IPSA on Monday.

Campaign group the TaxPayers' Alliance described it as "downright low".

Details of the expense from IPSA show the MP made the claim on 21 October 2014 for "Wreath for Remembrance Sunday".

It said it had "mistakenly processed" the claim after Miss Champion entered it under the office costs expenses category.

A spokesman for IPSA said: "We publish everything MPs claim even in circumstances like this and we'll be seeking repayment from the MP."

Andy Silvester, campaign director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Taxpayers will be outraged.

"Trying to put the bill on somebody else to honour our servicemen and women is downright low, but the fact that IPSA approved the claim shows how crushingly out of touch this overgrown monster of a quango is."