Interest relief is paid for by the public

ACCORDING to your article in the Times May 21 Mr Geoffrey Cox MP states 'that his Parliamentary Additional Cost Allowance had been used solely to defray mortgage interest payments, ground rent and compulsory service charges on his London flat which was bought without assistance from the taxpayer'.

I am puzzled. The Additional Cost Allowance is provided from public funds, i.e. by the taxpayer. If Mr Cox has used some of that allowance to defray or partially defray the mortgage interest on a property how can he claim that property was bought without assistance from the taxpayer?

The fact is that if the Times report is accurate Mr Cox has bought a property which he can chose to continue to live in, to rent out or to sell, potentially at a profit, and for which, by his own admission, taxpayers' money was used to defray the mortgage interest.

However, never mind, we common or garden taxpayers, 'it's within the rules'.

Charles Letchford

6 Vicarage Road

Okehampton