A HAMPSHIRE MP has denied making almost £90,000 by selling his second home in London and charging the cost of renting a new flat in the capital to taxpayers.

Southampton Test MP Alan Whitehead was accused of collecting a £89,000 profit after selling his property in Oval, south London, for £256,000 – despite paying £3,339 capital gains charge.

The windfall was within the rules, but contrasts with those of many other MPs who have continued to live in homes they already own.

But the shadow energy and climate change minister claims the lion’s share of contributions to the home – which originally cost £175,000 – were paid from his own pocket rather than the public purse.

It comes as he claims sweeping changes to parliamentary rules to simplify MPs accommodation costs now costs the taxpayer more to put him up in a rented property in the capital rather than owning his own home.

Dr Whitehead initially bought his one-bedroom flat in 2004 as an overnight base when he spends three full days in London for his parliamentary duties.

But changes to expenses rules, brought in by the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) in 2010 meaning MPs can no longer claim back mortgage interest, led him to sell the property in September 2012.

Since then he is paying £1,581 rent a month on a one-bedroom flat in Lambeth – which he is claiming from Ipsa.

But Dr Whitehead – who claims commuting to the capital from Southampton is impractical – says he has operated by the rules.

He says he had initially paid a deposit of more than 50 per cent on the Oval house, thus reducing the size of the mortgage.

He claimed his capital and interest mortgage cost the taxpayer around £700 a month at the beginning and fell to roughly £170 over the course of the mortgage due to interest rates plummeting.

He added that he had paid back £5,000 in capital gains to Ipsa following the sale.

He said: “I had ensured I had a minimal mortgage and I was paying money from my own resources on the capital as the mortgage progressed.

“By the time I came to sell it, the mortgage was very small and I did make some money on the property. But the amount of public money that brought about the capital gain was very small and the payment was very small.”

He said that the new rules simplify what was a previously complicated system, but added: “The perverse indicator is that I claim more from the public purse for renting than I originally did.”

Southampton Itchen Conservative MP Royston Smith, who rents a property near Westminster for around £1,200 a month said: “He hasn’t done anything that isn’t within the rules. He, like most other MPs, followed the guidelines.”