UK culture sec. quits over expenses

Britain’s Culture Secretary Maria Miller has quit her post over an ongoing expenses scandal.

According to Reuters, in a letter to the British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday, Miller said she was resigning as the controversy over her expenses “has become a distraction from the vital work this government is doing.”

The resignation follows days of mounting public and political pressure on the secretary to quit following the scandal over her expenses between 2005 and 2009.

In the four-year period, Miller claimed more than £90,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses on her house in Wimbledon, south London, which she shared with her parents.

Last week, the Commons Committee on Standards cleared the Basingstoke MP of misusing the expenses system, but ordered her to repay £5,800 to cover over-claiming of mortgage expenses and apologize for failing to co-operate fully with an inquiry into her actions.