TORY MPs Ann and Nick Winterton have accused Commons sleazebusters of unfair treatment after they were found guilty of breaking expenses rules.

A Commons standards committee found they breached rules by claiming £165,000 allowances for rent on a £700,000 second home in London, which they owned, avoiding death duties.

Using a loophole in Commons rules, they claimed more than £30,000 a year in expenses from the taxpayer after transferring the Westminster property to a family trust set up for their children in 2002 and then rented it back.

The committee said the Cheshire couple inadvertently broke rules tightened up in 2003.

But Lady Winterton, MP for Congleton, said they had not been treated fairly.

She said: "We believe the tenor of the report places the onus disproportionately on us. We are perfectly agreeable to share the responsibility but feel that we have not received fair treatment in this regard."

Sleaze watchdogs agreed with Standards Commissioner John Lyon that they had been in breach of the rules since July 2006. MPs said they knew about the breach in February last year and should have addressed the issue earlier.

But Lady Winterton hit back, quoting from Commons officials who accepted that because of an administrative error, a ruling was not sent to them.

The committee, who have the power to recommend sanctions against MPs who break the rules say that Lady Winterton and Sir Nicholas, the MP for Macclesfield, had at no stage attempted to conceal the arrangements.

But the MPs committee say that from September this year the Wintertons should no longer claim expenses for rent on a property they own.

Labour prospective candidate for Congleton Gary Poole, who was one of two people to claim that Commons rules had been broken, said his complaint had been vindicated.

"At a time when hardworking families are facing up to the global problem of rising living costs, they see their MPs letting them down," said Mr Poole.

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