A "furious" David Cameron tonight forced a former Conservative minister to stand down as an MP at the next general election after he admitted claiming £1,645 for a floating "duck island" in his garden.
Sir Peter Viggers, a Northern Ireland Office minister in the late 1980s, was told by the Tory leader that he would be stripped of the Conservative whip immediately unless he agreed to retire.
Cameron acted after the Daily Telegraph revealed that Viggers, the MP for Gosport since 1974, had claimed £32,000 in gardening expenses over three years at his Hampshire home. This included a claim for a floating duck island designed to protect his ducks from foxes. This was rejected by the Commons authorities.
Viggers also claimed for 28 tonnes of manure and submitted an electrician's invoice for the installation of lights on his Christmas tree. Cameron told Viggers that a new Tory scrutiny panel would decide how much money he should pay back. It is likely to be in five figures.
Cameron moved quickly last night because he fears that claims by Tory grandees for country estates will undermine his rebranding of the Conservative party. Douglas Hogg, the former agriculture minister, announced this week that he would stand down at the next election after claiming for the cleaning of his moat.
Anthony Steen, the veteran MP for Totnes, said yesterday that he would stand down after claiming for the costs of a forestry expert to inspect up to 500 trees in the grounds of his estate. Steen said: "The real focus for all Conservatives should be on winning the next election. For that reason, and because I don't want to distract from the real story here, I have decided not to stand at the next election."
A Tory source said last night: "David Cameron is absolutely furious. He will not tolerate these kind of claims."
Bill Wiggin, a Tory whip who was at Eton with Cameron, was forced to defend his expenses last night amid claims that he wrongly claimed for a mortgage at his country home in Herefordshire. The MP for Leominster claimed £11,000 over 20 months for mortgage interest on the country home, even though he did not have a mortgage on the property.
Wiggin said he had made a "silly error" because he should have listed his London property, where he does have a mortgage.
"For a period I filled in the accompanying forms incorrectly, but this mistake made no difference at all to the claim. It was purely an administrative error, and of absolutely no financial advantage to me." Tory sources said the mortgage interest on his London home matched exactly the amount he claimed for his Herefordshire property.