John Lyons, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, launched an inquiry after The Telegraph published details about the Mrs Miller's expenses this week.
Between 2005 and 2009, the Culture Secretary claimed the cost of the mortgage and other expenses associated with a South London property, which has been her parents’ home for “nearly two decades”.
Mrs Miller insists her expenses are "absolutely in order" but the watchdog has decided to look at whether there is a case to answer.
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Mrs Miller today hit back at her critics in an interview with The Evening Standard, saying her expenses have been "audited twice independently" in a review of MPs by Sir Thomas Legg and another by the Conservative Party.
However, when asked whether those auditors knew that her parents lived in the property, she did not give a clear answer.
“I obviously spoke to the Fees Office about my claims and they were happy that everything was in order,” she said.
She also struggled to explain why she abruptly stopped claiming expenses for the second home in 2009, shortly before The Daily Telegraph broke the MPs’ expenses scandal.
“Because I think there was a lot of concern about the rules and, a lot of concern about, you know, the whole issue, and it’s something I felt that I didn’t want to be, sort of, mixed up in, the fact that I," she said, before adding: “I just made that decision.”
It's a bit weak, to say the least Would it be unfair to describe the lady as a scrounger on the public purse?
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