Treasury minister quits over expenses
TREASURY minister Kitty Ussher resigned from the government last night after it emerged she avoided paying £17,000 capital gains tax on her Burnley constituency home when she sold it in 2007.
Ussher denied she did anything wrong, but said she was stepping aside to prevent causing the “government any embarrassment.”
Ussher, a former City Minister, is understood to have redesignated her main home from London to Burnley for one month while the sale of her constituency went ahead, which enabled her to pay less tax.
Rising star Ussher was due to attend chancellor Alistair Darling annual Mansion House speech but pulled out at the eleventh hour, after news of her claims surfaced.