'Real Labour' candidate exploits expenses loophole to move to Notting Hill

Labour deputy leadership challenger Jon Cruddas was accused of 'double standards' as it was revealed he bought a £500,000 second home to be close to his child's elite selective school.

Left-winger Mr Cruddas has attacked Labour plans for more choice in education and criticised the lack of homes for working-class families.

But he sends his own child to one of Britain's most exclusive Roman Catholic schools. And he owns two London homes, one of which is empty most of the time, thanks to claiming £60,000 in tax-free Commons housing expenses in the past three years.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the MP - who has styled himself the "Real Labour" candidate for the deputy leadership - has exploited a loophole in the Commons regulations which allows him to claim for the cost of the mortgage interest for his £500,000 flat in upmarket Notting Hill - just round the corner from David Cameron - which he bought in 2004.

At around the same time his child began attending the Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School half a mile away in Holland Park.

Mr Cruddas, a former Downing Street adviser to Tony Blair on unions, last week disowned neighbouring Labour MP Margaret Hodge's controversial call to give British families precedence over recent immigrants in the council-house queue.

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He said race was irrelevant, insisting: "The problem is lack of housing supply."

But as well as the Notting Hill flat, he also owns a £160,000 Thirties terrace former council house in his East London constituency of Dagenham, where there is an acute shortage of cheap family accommodation.

He is rarely seen at the house, according to neighbours. Asked if Mr Cruddas and his family had ever been spotted, one said: "I've only seen him, not the rest of the family." Another said: "Whenever he comes, he doesn't stay long."

A senior Labour MP told The Mail on Sunday: "Jon is guilty of double standards. On the one hand he attacks selection in education and then sends his child to one of the most selective state schools in the country.

"Then he moans about New Labour's failure to provide more affordable accommodation while he himself claims expenses from the taxpayer to buy a second home, when one of his homes could be occupied by a hard-working low-income family."

Mr Cruddas, one of the favourites to succeed John Prescott, has criticised Tony Blair's attempts to introduce more choice in secondary education through city academies, saying: "We should be reviewing them and asking what empirical evidence there has been about them."

Yet the school his own child attends is far from being a 'bog-standard comprehensive'.

The Cardinal Vaughan, where pupils are required to learn Latin and attend weekly Mass, is four times oversubscribed and selects its children according to the religious commitment of the pupil and his parents - and their proximity to the school.

Extra points are awarded to applicants whose parents volunteer for church cleaning duties.

The school is surrounded by some of Britain's most elegant and expensive property and parents tend to be wealthy or middle-class. Only 25 per cent of children are from ethnic minorities - low for a school in Central London.

The voluntary-aided school is free of local authority control and has some of the best exam results of any state school in London. It sends around nine students a year to Oxford and Cambridge, more than many fee-paying schools.

Its results easily outclass its more famous Roman Catholic rival, the London Oratory in Fulham, where Tony Blair sent his three eldest children.

By contrast, the secondary school nearest to Mr Cruddas's constituency home is Dagenham Park Community School, which is one of London's bottom 20 in terms of exam achievement, according to the latest league tables.

The pupils are drawn mainly from local working-class council estates and the school's results at every stage are well below the national average.

Because his constituency is considered 'outer London' Mr Cruddas is legally entitled to Parliamentary expenses for a second home. Inner London MPs have to make do with a £2,613-a-year London weighting allowance.

Last year Mr Cruddas received £21,535 in taxpayer-funded accommodation allowances - close to the maximum permitted. This is on top of his £59,000 salary and generous pension scheme.

MPs like Mr Cruddas have traditionally been allowed to claim the so-called Additional Costs Allowance to fund bolt-holes near the Commons so they can avoid late-night journeys home after Commons votes.

However, his Notting Hill flat is more than four miles west of Parliament, while his Dagenham home is only 13 miles away in the other direction.

Mr Cruddas has told the Commons fees office that his 'main home' is the one in the constituency. He claims expenses on his 'second home' in Notting Hill.

MPs can use Commons accommodation allowances to pay for mortgage interest, essential repairs, white goods and furniture.

The flat in a handsome pre-war mansion block was bought for £375,000 in July 2004 and is now worth more than £500,000. Previously he lived in a flat close to Lord's cricket ground in North-West London.

Mr Cruddas bought his Dagenham house in 2002 for £105,000 and it is now worth £160,000, a profit of more than 50 per cent over four years.

Mr Cruddas has pledged to renounce the title of Deputy PM and the Dorneywood grace-and-favour mansion used by John Prescott if he is elected.

He has the support of the two giant trade unions Amicus and the T&G, who back his opposition to the New Labour policy of introducing more private sector involvement in public services such as schools and hospitals.

As well as living in an ultra-trendy neighbourhood, the MP recently joined one of the most sought-after golf clubs in Britain, Walton Heath in the joining fee is £3,500 and annual fee is £1,500. It was once captained by the Duke of Windsor.

Mr Cruddas, the son of a Helston sailor, attended a Roman Catholic school.

His wife Anna Healy, another Labour veteran, has worked as an aide to the late Mo Mowlam.

Mr Cruddas denied he had moved simply to get his child into Cardinal Vaughan school. "My child went to the local Catholic Primary and then followed friends to the secondary school.

"I am a product of a Catholic Comprehensive and so is my child,' he said.

"I have been critical of the City Academy programme, but I have always been supportive of Catholic comprehensives."

He confirmed that he claimed expenses on the Notting Hill property following advice and said it had been approved by the Commons fees office.

He admitted that he had made little use of his Dagenham house recently.

"With all the campaigning I have not been there for a few months. But I do go regularly.

"The family do come up quite a lot during the school holidays.

"I have never had anything to hide. I have always been upfront. Having the constituency house allows me to divide my time during the week."