James Gray has been partially cleared of alleged abuse of his parliamentary expenses by Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Sir Philip Mawer. Download Mawer's letter here.
Claims that up until her breast cancer his wife had received expenses without doing any work were deemed unfounded, as were those that he misused official stationery when writing to Association members. It was however found that for a five month period, when they were in the process of separating, Sarah Gray hadn't done enough work to justify her full-time pay. James Gray has agreed to pay back that money:
"I am happy that Sir Philip has dismissed any suggestion of deliberate dishonesty on my part and has found that there was no case to answer on the three main allegations against me. I fully accept his conclusion that there was some accidental and partial overpayment at the end of Sarah’s employment, which he accepts was not deliberate. I have apologised for that oversight, and have arranged to repay the relatively small amount of money involved to the Parliamentary authorities."
At the end of January this year Gray won a ballot of local members to remain the MP for Wiltshire North, after having lost the confidence of the Association exec following his high profile extra-marital affair.
Deputy Editor
