New delay in Duncan Smith inquiry

A report into Iain Duncan Smith's parliamentary finances has been delayed for a second time amid reports that fresh evidence has been presented to the parliamentary standards commissioner.

Sir Philip Mawer is not expected to complete his findings until the end of the month after reportedly receiving the new evidence, which is believed to extend beyond the allegations which prompted the original investigation.

It is understood that Sir Philip's inquiry has heard details about Mr Duncan Smith's parliamentary housing allowance, although there is no public evidence that he misused this.

The wait is prolonging the agony for Mr Duncan Smith, who is believed to have been questioned by Sir Philip for five hours.

The investigation was prompted by allegations that the former Tory leader paid his wife up to £15,000 out of his parliamentary office allowance for work as his diary secretary. It is alleged that Betsy Duncan Smith carried out insufficient duties to justify the payment.

A spokeswoman for Sir Philip said yesterday that he had hoped to present his report to the cross-party Commons standards and privileges committee at the beginning of January. Recently, he decided to move the date until the end of this month.

On the day he launched his investigation last October, Sir Philip said that it was in the public interest for him to conduct his inquiry "expeditiously".

The spokeswoman said the "understandable" delay had been caused by Mr Duncan Smith's loss of the Tory leadership.

Sir Philip launched his investigation on October 14 after the BBC Newsnight reporter Michael Crick passed on a dossier of allegations shortly before Mr Duncan Smith was unseated.

A leaked email from Vanessa Gearson, a key figure in Mr Duncan Smith's office, is at the heart of the Crick dossier.

Dr Gearson warned in the internal email, which was sent in January last year, of a "Crick-style" investigation into Mrs Duncan Smith's employment.

A senior supporter of Mr Duncan Smith underlined the anger in his camp yesterday. Michael Lewis, the chairman of his Chingford and Woodford Green constituency, said: "The allegations all seemed part of a strange conspiracy against Iain. I am not quite sure why."

A spokesman for the former Tory leader said that people should await the publication of Sir Philip's report before jumping to any conclusions. "There is an inquiry going on," the spokesman said. "I can't comment on this and nor can Iain. People are commenting about things which we have no way of commenting on."

Once Sir Philip completes his report, MPs on the standard and privileges committee will have to decide whether to take any action against Mr Duncan Smith. They could ask the former Tory leader to appear before them in private.

If they decide to act, a debate will take place in the Commons before MPs vote on any recommendation by the committee.

Sir Philip, a former private secretary to Douglas Hurd, has won the respect of MPs on both sides of the Commons for his "plain dealing".

He replaced Elizabeth Filkin, who upset some MPs with what they saw as an aggressive style of investigations.