The former MP whose claim for taxpayers’ money to clean his moat symbolised the expenses scandal is seeking a return to Parliament.
Tory former minister Douglas Hogg quit as an MP at the 2010 general election and agreed to pay back the £2,200 bill for dredging the moat at his country estate.
Now he is seeking a return to Parliament in the House of Lords by standing for election as one of the remaining hereditary peers under his title Viscount Hailsham.
Voting in the by-election for a Tory peer to replace the late Earl Ferrers will close on February 5 and the result will be announced the following day.
The electorate for the contest, which uses the Alternative Vote system, consists of the 48 Tory hereditary peers in the Lords.
Former agriculture minister Viscount Hailsham argued that he had not actually claimed for the £2,200 bill for clearing the moat at his estate parts of which date back to the 13th century.
But he subsequently agreed to pay back the money after accepting that it had not been “positively excluded” from paperwork he submitted to the Commons Fees Office in support of his allowances claim for upkeep of the estate.
He had been MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham since 1997 and before that had represented Grantham since 1979.