By Ian Austen

ian.austen@essnmedia.co.uk

TORY agent Ian Parker has admitted he is to blame for a mistake which has embroiled new Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell in an expenses probe by Channel 4 News.

The investigation revealed that during the general election campaign Mr Barwell did not declare any payments, as required by law, for renting his office in the Conservative headquarters in Brighton Road, Purley.

The party has accepted mistakes were made and an application will now be made to the High Court for permission to submit the figures.

Channel 4 claimed the sum involved was around £300, a figure not confirmed by Mr Barwell.

While it was not part of the investigation, it has also emerged that Croydon South's Conservative MP Richard Ottaway did not declare his rental costs for his office at the HQ either.

A further undeclared sum of £500 towards Mr Barwell's printing costs was also revealed by Channel 4.

Mr Parker, who was elected to Croydon Council in May, told the Advertiser this week steps were being taken to rectify the errors.

He added: "Any mistakes are my mistakes."

Mr Barwell admitted the revelations were an embarrassment.

He said he did not notice the rental costs had been left off the election campaign expenses figures submitted to the Electoral Commission by Mr Parker.

The £500 for printing leaflets had been declared originally but at the end of the campaign should have been included a second time as part of the final accounting exercise.

Mr Barwell said: "Conservative Central Office understand what has happened and it has been accepted the error was an administrative one and there was no attempt to get round the law. It is a reality in life that people make mistakes. We have fessed up and tried to put things right."

Expenses are submitted twice, once for the "long campaign" which ran from January until the middle of April and the second for the "short campaign" which ran from the middle of April to polling day on May 6.

Mr Barwell submitted expenses of £24,481 for the long campaign. The legal maximum for the constituency was £28,817.

For the short campaign he submitted expenses of £10,204 against a legal maximum of £10,967.

In Croydon South Mr Ottaway submitted expenses of £4,688 for the long campaign. The legal maximum was £29,065.

For the short campaign he submitted expenses of £3,330. The legal maximum was £11,215. The mistakes relate to the short campaign and Mr Parker insists when the new figures are submitted the expenses will still be below the maximum totals allowed.

Last year Mr Ottaway had to pay back thousands of pounds of expenses claimed for his second home.

When approached this week about the undeclared rental costs, he said: "All I want to say is that this is a cock up and not a conspiracy, and we are sorting it out."