A HAMPSHIRE MP has been ordered to apologise to the House of Commons and repay cash over their second home in London.
Romsey and Southampton North representative Sandra Gidley is one of four Lib Dem MPs who showed "serious misjudgement" according to the findings of an inquiry published today.
The group, which also includes John Barrett, Paul Holmes and Richard Younger-Ross, all received cash from the landlord of taxpayer-funded second homes in Westminster.
The House of Commons standards and privileges committee has ordered them to repay that money, which relates to flats in Dolphin Square, which is near Parliament.
No action was recommended on lesser ''misjudgements'' by Sir Alan Beith and former party leader Sir Menzies Campbell, who were tenants at the same block.
The six referred themselves to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after a national newspaper reported that at least 13 MPs had received ''windfalls'' for giving up their rights to cheap rents in the block following its sale to a private company in 2005.
The paper said that a number of those who took the money then stayed on in the block - which was previously owned by a non-profit making trust - leaving the taxpayer to pick up the cost of the higher rentals.
In its report, the committee said that the public purse should not have lost out as a result of MPs accepting offers from Dolphin Square.
''We consider that Members should have sought official advice at the time the offers were made and we are surprised that none of the six who referred themselves did so,'' it said.
''If Members had sought advice in writing, they should have been advised to recognise the contribution made from public funds to the position they were in and to have paid a proportion of any windfall payment to the House.
''However, those who kept the payment and achieved a saving to public funds are, in our judgement, in a different position from those who kept it but did not achieve a saving, or who added to public expenditure.''
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg today said the six had acted promptly in referring themselves to the committee, and challenged Labour and Tory MPs who also had homes at Dolphin Square to do the same.
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