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MPs have raked in more than £42 million from a second home property bonanza, an exclusive Mirror investigation has revealed.

Politicians reclaimed thousands of pounds in mortgage interest payments for the properties at public expense under the discredited old expenses system.

It was intended to allow MPs from all over the country to have a home near the Commons, where they can sit late into the night.

But there was nothing stopping them keeping the profits if they sold up.

After the expenses scandal, the system was overhauled.

Taxpayers no longer footed the bill for the mortgages of MPs, who now can claim up to £22,760 in rent for a second home.

But MPs who had already bought theirs were allowed to keep them, plus any profits from the sale.

Here are some of the MPs revealed in our investigation.

Michael Gove (C) - £870,000

The Environment Secretary made an £870,000 gross profit selling two homes.

Mr Gove was first elected to Parliament in 2005 and began claiming second home expenses on a property in London he bought with his wife for £430,000 in 2002.

He claimed £7,000 to furnish his home with items from an exclusive store owned by ex-PM David Cameron’s mother-in-law and later returned the money. In 2006, he flipped his second home allowance to a new constituency home he and his wife bought in Guildford in 2006, claiming £64,337 in mortgage interest payments from 2005 to 2009.

When he sold it in 2010 for £395,000 – the same price he had paid for it – he said: “I didn’t want to make any money from it.”

But the couple later sold their London home in 2017 for £1.3million.

Mr Gove did not respond to a request for a comment.

Sir Graham Brady (C) - £1.1 million

CHAIR of the powerful 1922 committee of backbench Tories, Graham Brady made nearly £1.1million.

Mr Brady, 51, was elected MP for Altrincham and Sale West in 1997 and bought his Westminster flat for £340,000 in 2001. Between 2004 and 2009 he claimed £81,069 in mortgage interest payments.

He sold the flat in 2014 for £1,415,000, a gross profit of £1,075,000. Mr Brady said: “Capital gains tax was paid on this transaction, more than refunding the mortgage interest subsidy claimed.

“Since 2010 I have not claimed mortgage subsidy or rent and have therefore saved the taxpayer.”

Maria Miller (C) - £1.23 million

FORMER Culture Secretary Maria Miller made a £1.23million gross profit selling her South London home.

Mrs Miller, 55, bought the property in Wimbledon with her husband for £234,000 in 1995 and designated it her second home when she was elected to Parliament as MP for Basingstoke in 2005.

In total, Ms Miller claimed £70,314 in mortgage interest payments between 2005 and 2009 but was later ordered to repay £5,800 in mortgage interest payments after it was found she had allowed her parents to live there. She sold the property for £1,470,000 in 2014 and now claims for the cost of staying in hotels.

Mrs Miller said: “The matter you are referring to relates to claims made up to 14 years ago. My claims have been subject to a investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and I can confirm that I always pay my tax in full.”

David Tredinnick (C) - £2.85 million

It is not recorded how much Mr Tredinnick paid for the property in London, but he bought it in 1988 and sold it in 2009 for £2,850,000.

It is not known when he designated the house as his second home, but between 2004 and 2009 he claimed £106,745 in mortgage interest payments.

A spokeswoman for Mr Tredinnick, 69, who has been MP for Bosworth since 1987, said he was audited in 2009 and “everything was found to be in order”.

She said: “Mr Tredinnick’s tax affairs are a private matter.”

Since selling the house, he has claimed £171,000 from taxpayers to rent a property.

Kitty Ussher (L) - £712,000

Former Labour minister Kitty Ussher made a gross profit of £712,000 on her second home.

Ms Usser, 48, was elected MP for Burnley in 2005 and designated the London terrace house she had owned for five years as her second home.

She claimed £25,590 mortgage interest payments from 2005 to 2009 and £16,724 for a new kitchen.

Ms Ussher quit as a minister in 2009 and as an MP in 2010 in the wake of the expenses scandal.

She sold the London house in 2017 for £985,000 – £712,000 more than she and her husband paid.

Ms Ussher was not available for comment.

Hugh Bayley (L) - £1 million

MR Bayley, 67, was elected MP for City of York in 1992. He has owned a house in the city since 1986.

He bought a terrace house in Westminster in 2003 for £625,000 and designated it his second home. He later flipped the designation to the York property.

Between 2004 and 2009, he claimed £66,647 in mortgage interest payments.

He sold the London house in 2013 for £1,681,000, a profit of £1,056,000. He still owns the York property and it is worth an estimated £616,000, according to property website Zoopla.

Mr Bayley was not available for comment.

John Hutton (L) - £870,000

The ex-Labour Minister bought a West London house for £730,000 and sold it in 2014 for £1.6million, paying no capital gains tax on a profit of £870,000.

He became MP for Barrow and Furness in 1992 and claimed £900 a month for interest on mortgage payments on his constituency home until 2005, when it rose to £1,340. Between 2004 and 2009 he claimed £67,915 in mortgage interest payments.

He stood down as an MP in 2010 and was made a life peer. He said: “At the time it was sold, it was our principal residence. I had stood down for four years. There was no question of paying capital gains tax.”

Michael Jack (C) - £1.5 million

THE former minister, 72, was elected MP for Fylde in 1987 and bought a property in Kennington, South London, in 1997 for £236,000. It is not known when he started claiming second home expenses but between 2004 and 2009 he claimed £53,360 in mortgage interest payments.

He stood down in 2010 and sold the house in 2014 for £1,700,000. Asked if he paid capital gains tax, Mr Jack said: “Of course. It was designated as my second home and it always was.” He added: “We used our own money to make it habitable. It was reflected in the selling price and we recouped some of that.”