Derby North Tory MP Amanda Solloway 'devastated' after expenses 'mistake'

Derby North Tory MP Amanda Solloway has spoken - after it emerged she put a fixed penalty notice (FPN) on expenses.

Over the weekend, The Independent revealed how Ms Solloway and other MPs had been reimbursed by Parliament's expenses watchdog for the FPNs.

Ms Solloway, who is also energy minister, has now told Sky News: "When I had the news, I was just absolutely devastated.

"I wouldn't intentionally want to do anything [like that] – it was a genuine admin error."

She added: "Obviously, as soon as I found out, I've paid it back and also making sure that I look at ways in the future making sure that this doesn't happen again.

"But the fact is, it did happen, I paid it back and I knew I would be likely to be asked about this today.

"However, I want to come on to say it's a genuine mistake - and I paid it back."

The £80 FPN issued to Ms Solloway while she was driving in London in July 2020 was listed under 'MP travel expenses'.

Ms Solloway, who paid back the cash when she was approached by the Independent over the story, said the FPN was for "a congestion charge".

The expenses were wrongly approved and paid by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA).

A spokesperson for IPSA said: "MPs are not allowed to claim for penalty charges and fines under IPSA rules. Paragraph 3.26 of the Scheme of MPs’ Staffing and Business Costs clearly states that these fines are not claimable.

"IPSA's checks failed in some cases to identify these claims and some of them were paid. We will contact MPs and ask them to repay, where appropriate. We have changed our process to ensure any future such claims are not paid and will reiterate the scheme rules to MPs."