Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative party and MP for North West Essex, claims thousands each month for her second home within the constituency. Ms Badenoch claims £2,700 a month from the taxpayer to rent a grade II-listed farmhouse with six bedrooms. The property sits within the highest council tax bracket, costing over £4,000 in council tax a year, which the Essex MP also claims on expenses.

MPs who live outside of London are complying by parliamentary rules to claim for a second home within their constituency. The constituency house she has chosen in North West Essex has five bedrooms as well as a kitchen and three living rooms.

The sixth bedroom is in a separate guest annexe with its own sitting room, bathroom and kitchen. It is described as a “stunning Grade II listed detached farmhouse which has been beautifully renovated throughout” and has “beautiful extensive gardens”. The home is 50 miles from Westminster in her North West Essex constituency.

READ MORE:Essex village's only pub to be turned into new home

READ MORE:Thousands of Essex homes to be protected from flooding

Mrs Badenoch claimed nearly £4,000 in council tax last year, reports The MIrror. She made the 23rd-highest accommodation claim out of 664 MPs last year. While it is within the rules to claim these expenses, Mrs Badenoch has also openly spoken about her aims for a "smaller state" and champions lower Government spending. Mrs Badenoch’s office was approached for comment.

Under the House of Commons rules, MPs who represent constituencies outside London are entitled to claim for the costs of working in two places - in Westminster and their constituencies. Expenses claims can be used to cover hotel stays, the cost of renting a second home or for the bills at an extra property that they own. Those who are renting are given a bigger budget for up to three dependent children. Mrs Badenoch is married with three young children and so is entitled to a larger claim.

Kwajo Tweneboa, a campaigner on social issues like housing, said: "While countless people across the country scrape by on a fraction of Kemi’s salary - forced to stretch every pound just to keep up with soaring council tax bills - she comfortably claims £4,000 a year in expenses to cover her own. For those struggling to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table, this isn’t just unfair; it’s an insult.

“At a time when working families are being squeezed from every angle, the idea that the Leader of the Opposition can offload a basic cost of living onto the taxpayer is nothing short of a slap in the face. It may be within the rules but it’s not as if she can’t afford it."

Issy Waite, Labour's candidate for Mrs Badeboch's North West Essex seat at the last election, said: "I was clear in my campaign that if I was elected I would not take a flat in London or a second home. I believe that if you are elected for an area you should at least live in that area. With Kemi Badenoch, the thing I heard time and time again on the doorstep is that she only turns up when it is election time, for a photo op, and then she leaves.

“I think it is unfair for the bill for her very large home to be put on taxpayers when we all know there is a cost of living crisis and that it is her Government that has created this mess. I think it is incredibly concerning to see the Leader of the Opposition pass on that bill for her large home to the taxpayer."

Last year, Mrs Badenoch’s total claim was £36,244.65, which was £1,205.35 short of her limit of £37,450.00. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which is responsible for MPs expenses, says this is the “standard budget for renting a property outside the London area, with an uplift to cover the cost of three dependants”.

In the last Parliament, 147 MPs made no accommodation claims. 96 of these were London MPs who were not entitled to claim. The others were MPs who could have claimed but chose not to.

Those who did not make an accommodation claim included former Prime Ministers Rishi Sunak, MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire, and Theresa May, MP for Maidenhead, who have never claimed accommodation costs. Other senior Tories who did not claim for a second home last year, though they could, include Gillian Keegan, former MP for Chichester, Jeremy Hunt, MP for Godalming and Ash, Michael Gove, former MP for Surrey Heath, Nadhim Zahawi, former MP for Stratford-on-Avon, Jesse Norman, MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, Shailesh Vara, former MP for North West Cambridgeshire, Nadine Dorries, former MP for Mid Bedfordshire, Sajid Javid, former MP for Bromsgrove and Alok Sharma, former MP for Reading West.

They also include two MPs who are now surviving as members of Mrs Badenoch’s shadow cabinet - Priti Patel, MP for Witham and Shadow Foreign Secretary and Claire Coutinho, MP for Surrey East and Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. Some MPs declined to claim for accommodation costs last year even though they live far from Westminster. They include Tories Jacob Rees Mogg, former MP for North East Somerset, and John Penrose, former MP for Weston-super-Mare, Labour’s Lucy Powell, MP for Manchester Central and Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, and Plaid Cymru’s Ben Lake, MP for Ceredigion Preseli.