THE MP whose complaint sparked an investigation into Maria Miller’s second home expense claims, has welcomed her resignation as Culture Secretary.

The investigation into the Basingstoke MP’s claims of £90,718 for her second home was launched in December 2012 by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, after the office received a complaint from Bassetlaw Labour MP John Mann.

The complaint from Mr Mann was made a day after a report in The Daily Telegraph on December 11, 2012 detailing Mrs Miller’s expenses claims for mortgage interest payments, utilities and council tax.

Mr Mann criticised Mrs Miller at a meeting of Labour members, held at Basingstoke Labour Club, in Sandys Road, South Ham, on Tuesday evening.

Mr Mann said he believed that Mrs Miller’s comment that she had let local voters down, which was exclusively published on The Gazette website at 5pm on Tuesday, was too little, too late.

Speaking yesterday morning, Mr Mann told The Gazette: “Now that she is no longer a Minister, she has to face the people of Basingstoke.

“They should have the power of recall, so they can decide if she is fit to still be their MP.”

He added: “I think Maria Miller’s local apology is too little too late. If I was in the Cabinet and had to pay back money, I would resign.

“If she was a Labour MP, I would want her removed as a candidate.

“I am not happy that the committee of MPs over-ruled the Parliamentary Commissioner’s findings regarding how much money she should have paid back. It is fundamentally wrong. MPs should not be regulating themselves.

“It is astonishing that that a group of MPs can overrule an independent Commissioner who carried out the investigation.

“I would like to see her pay the full amount and I want to see a proper apology, not to me but to her constituents.”

Mr Mann added: “Maria Miller should have resigned immediately and when she didn’t resign, David Cameron should have shown a bit of leadership, and he should have sacked her.”

“There is a difference between loyalty and blind loyalty.

“There’s only one person who is responsible for Maria Miller’s behaviour, and that’s Maria Miller, and there’s only one person who is responsible for David Cameron’s indecisiveness, and that’s David Cameron.

“There’s a word missing in British politics and that’s honour, and I would define honour as: if you’ve done something wrong, you should resign.”