Former Liberal Democrat MP Willie Rennie has hit out at the man who ousted him from his seat in the General Election, accusing him of making “wild allegations” against him over expenses claims.
It emerged at the weekend that Mr Rennie has agreed to repay £2647 of wrongly-claimed expenses following an investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner.
Mr Rennie, who until the election represented Dunfermline and West Fife, has apologised for the breach which he described as a mistake with “end of year adjustments.”
In his findings, the commissioner said, although rules had been broken, Mr Rennie’s claims had been reasonable and there was no evidence they were intended to benefit his party.
The inquiry was launched last June following a complaint by Labour’s Thomas Docherty, who won the seat at the election.
Mr Docherty’s concerns stemmed from an office lease taken over by the Lib Dems who, he said, doubled the rent when they became landlord.
The Labour MP had claimed Mr Rennie and Lib Dem MSP Jim Tolson paid a total of £21,000 in rent to the local Lib Dems who paid just £7050 to lease the property.
The commissioner was also critical of Mr Rennie’s use of a printing press as no usage logs were kept, something required under the rules.
However, he added that Mr Rennie had taken the necessary action in response to the complaint and he now regarded the matter as closed.
Mr Docherty said that the findings were “deeply embarrassing” for the Lib Dems and for Mr Rennie.
“He has been ordered to repay thousands of pounds of money and has had to apologise for the misuse of his expenses. He wrongly directed public funds towards the Lib Dem election drive. People in Dunfermline will be pleased with this decision.”
Mr Rennie admitted mistakes had been made but accused Mr Docherty of making “outrageous claims” against him which had now been proved false.
Mr Rennie added, “The commissioner has made it absolutely clear that the central allegation by Thomas Docherty that I stole £18,000 of taxpayers’ money was not the case,” he said.
“At the end of each year I should have done an end of year adjustment which I did not do.”