by political editor Paul Francis

Maidstone and Weald MP Helen Grant has defended claiming the maximum expenses for a second home in London - despite living just 19 miles from Westminster.

Helen Grant, recently appointed equalities minister, lives outside her Maidstone constituency in a £1.8 million home in Reigate, Surrey.

It was reported at the weekend she also rents a flat near the MI6 building, in Vauxhall, which is funded on expenses.

Mrs Grant is eligible for an annual £20,000 second home allowance on Parliamentary expenses because her constituency is outside London.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) confirmed the MP's claim was within the rules.

But the Reigate home in which she lives is not far enough from London for the constituency MP - Tory Crispin Blunt - to make similar expenses claims.

Responding to the reports, a spokesman for Mrs Grant said: "Mrs Grant's constituency has been deemed by IPSA to be a non-London constituency and she is therefore fully entitled to use her rental accommodation allowance either in London or in the constituency.

"She has a base in her constituency at her mother's property, where her son also lives, so she sees no need to rent a further property there."

"The focus of her time and responsibility has always been Maidstone and the Weald."