Defence Secretary facing embarrassment after failing to pay full council tax on his second home in Westminster

Defense Secretary John Healey is facing embarrassment after failing to pay the full council tax on his second home in Westminster.

Mr Healey became the latest senior minister to face questions about his finances after Westminster Council underpaid him by almost £1,500 due to an ‘administrative error’.

The local authority admitted it had made a ‘mistake’ through inattention and Mr Healey has now paid his debt in full. The council also apologized.

But the upheaval is potentially embarrassing for Labor, where a number of senior figures including Rachel Reeves and Angela Rayner face questions about their failure to meet their legal obligations.

The Conservatives said Mr Healey still had questions to answer about why he did not notify the council when he received the ‘wrong’ bill.

Conservative Party leader Kevin Hollinrake said: ‘For this Government, whether it’s the anti-corruption minister being investigated for corruption, the homelessness minister evicting his own tenants, or the housing minister not paying stamp duty, for this Government it’s one rule for them and another for everyone else.

‘We have now learned that the Defense Secretary has underpaid council tax. This comes as the Labor Government increases council tax bills for everyone across the country.

‘Healey needs to clarify what he knew and when he knew it. If we can’t trust senior ministers to get their own tax affairs in order, how can we trust them to run the country?’

John Healey and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper were on board the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales earlier this week

Following the introduction of the second home council charge surcharge this year, Mr Healey’s council tax bill for his Westminster flat has effectively doubled to £2,938.

A spokesman for the defense secretary said he had notified the local authority that the property was a second home. However, the city billed him as if it were his primary residence and charged only half of the amount due.

The spokesman added: ‘The Secretary of State met all his obligations as a tenant by notifying Westminster Council of the tenancy’s second home status on the council tax registration form when the tenancy commenced.

‘Westminster Council made an administrative error in not classifying this as a second home for council tax purposes, leading to an incorrect council tax notice being issued. The council acknowledged the error and apologized for the error.

‘Westminster Council has corrected this error and the council tax liability for the London flat has been paid in full, including the second home surcharge.’

Mr Healey’s home constituency is South Yorkshire, where he has lived for decades. There will be no financial gain in underpaying council tax in Westminster because it is covered by MPs’ spending, an ally has said.

He has been renting the flat in Westminster since November last year and uses it as a base when he works in London.

A Westminster Council spokesman said: ‘The Secretary of State completed the form correctly and recorded the address as a second home. There was negligence on the part of the municipality, we did not register this place as a second home. This led to the publication of an incorrect council tax notice. We apologize for the error.’

The second housing surcharge was introduced by the last Conservative government and has been addressed by more than 200 councils since it came into force in April this year.

Ms Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister in September after it was revealed she had failed to pay £40,000 stamp duty on an £800,000 ‘second home’ in Hove.

Ms Reeves faced calls to resign after breaking the law by failing to obtain a license to rent her south London home. Yesterday he admitted he had a ‘duty’ to get it right but added: ‘I don’t think anyone can say they’ve never made a managerial mistake.’