Minister Failed To Declare Rent Income

Conservative Party co-chairman Baroness Warsi has admitted failing to declare rental income in the register of interests for members of the House of Lords.
The Cabinet Office minister said the omission was due to an "oversight", adding that she had reported the letting of her Wembley flat in the Register of Ministers' Interests.
The arrangement had also been declared to the Cabinet Office and HM Revenue and Customs, she said.
The Tory peer bought the property in 2007 but moved closer to Parliament based on security advice when she became a minister in 2010, after which she began letting the Wembley flat.
"Due to an oversight, for which I take full responsibility, the flat was not included on the Register of Lords' Interests when its value and the rent received came to exceed the thresholds for disclosure," she said.
"When the discrepancy became apparent this week, I immediately informed the Registrar of Lords' Interests of its omission.
"I repeat, at all times my ownership of the flat and the fact that it was being let out was fully disclosed to Cabinet Office officials and HM Revenue and Customs, and was appropriately reported on the register of ministers' interests held by the Government."
Peers are required to declare sources of income of more than £5,000, although the annual rent on a London flat is likely to be many times greater than that.
In a statement, Lady Warsi said that she contracted to buy the flat in September 2007, but it was not due to be ready until the following year.
In the interim she stayed predominantly at two hotels but also, for "occasional nights", at a property in Acton, west London, occupied by Tory adviser Naweed Khan.
"For the nights that I stayed as a guest of Naweed Khan, I made an appropriate financial payment equivalent to what I was paying at the time in hotel costs," she said.
The Sunday Times said she claimed more than £12,000 in "overnight subsistence" within six months of taking her seat in October 2007.
However, the newspaper reported the owner of the house, Dr Wafik Moustafa, a GP and former parliamentary candidate for the Conservative party, received no money from either Warsi or Naweed Khan, who was staying there rent-free.

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