Tory cad ordered to repay expenses he gave dumped wife

James Gray: Left cancer-ridden wife for mistress
12 April 2012

Parliament's anti-sleaze watchdog has ordered a Tory MP to pay back an undisclosed sum in Commons expenses after ruling that he wrongly used the cash to support the cancer-stricken wife he dumped for his mistress.

Wiltshire North MP James Gray paid wife Sarah £2,400 a month from his allowance after they separated following his affair with married mother-of-three Philippa Mayo.

It was claimed he was using his expenses to support her instead of paying her from his wages. Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Sir Philip Mawer investigated a complaint against Mr Gray by a member of the public who asked him to decide if the MP had acted 'fraudulently'.

Friends of Mrs Gray say she ceased doing any work as her husband's secretary two years ago when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Sir Philip cleared Mr Gray of wrongly paying his wife in that period, on the grounds that she was entitled to the money as sick pay. But he upheld a second complaint, ruling that the MP was wrong to carry on paying her £2,400 a month after their separation in October - and ordered him to pay back the money.

A leaked copy of Sir Philip's ruling states: "Some overpayment did occur during the period between October 2006 to February 2007 when Mrs Gray and her husband were separating. Mr Gray has acknowledged this overpayment and offered to repay the sum involved. He has also accepted responsibility and apologised for what happened."

It is thought that Mr Gray paid his wife a total of £12,000 from his Commons expenses between last October and February, when the payments were exposed by The Mail on Sunday.

Mr Gray, 52, left his wife and mother of their three children, Sarah, for Mrs Mayo, 41, a campaign manager for the Countryside Alliance who was married to Rupert Mayo, a prominent London criminal barrister.

Local Tory activists voted to drop Mr Gray as their candidate at the next General Election, but the decision was reversed after he appealed.

Mr Gray told The Mail on Sunday that he had been 'exonerated' by Sir Philip on the main allegations against him. "The only comment he made was that during the ending of my wife's employment there was a slight overpayment and that I should repay it, and I have done that,' he said. He declined to say how much he was told to pay back. Mrs Gray was unavailable for comment.

Mr Gray insists he has the support of most local party members and David Cameron, but the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald claimed he was snubbed by Mr Cameron when the Tory leader visited his constituency last month.

The paper said: "The visit by the Tory leader showed how far former Conservative golden boy James Gray has fallen from grace. The MP was kept very much in the background."

Some local activists say that Sir Philip's order to the MP to return Commons expenses could reignite the row over his future.

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