The expenses scandal claimed another senior scalp last night as Kitty Ussher, the junior Treasury minister, quit.

It emerged that the MP for Burnley told the tax authorities that her Burnley home was her “principal residence” for a single month in 2007, enabling her to avoid capital gains tax.

According to a letter from her accountants, Miss Ussher had designated her South London property as her main home for tax purposes, while claiming that it was her designated second home for claiming parliamentary expenses.

However, in 2007 just before she joined the Treasury for the first time, Miss Ussher paid an accountant to change her declaration, shortly before she sold the Burnley home.

Gordon Brown was reported to have told Miss Ussher that her position was untenable. Her departure came on the eve of today’s formal publication online of the expenses of all MPs over the past four years.

Miss Ussher said that she was leaving the Government “with the greatest regret” but would remain as MP for Burnley until the coming election, when she will stand down from Parliament “for family reasons”.

In a letter to Mr Brown, she said: “I arrived at this decision because I do not want to cause you or the Government any embarrassment. I did not do anything wrong. At all times, my actions have been in line with HM Revenue and Customs guidance and based on the advice of a reputable firm of accountants who, in turn, were recommended to me by the House of Commons Fees Office.”

Miss Ussher, 38, who has two children under 5, said she had decided “some time ago” to resign at the next election. She became Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury 12 days ago, in the reshuffle, from a post in the Department for Work and Pensions.

It has already been disclosed that within months of being elected in 2005, she asked the Commons authorities to fund refurbishment of her Brixton home. In a 12-point letter to the Fees Office, she wrote: “Most of the ceilings have Artex coverings. It could be a matter of taste, but this counts as ‘dilapidations’ in my book! Can the ACA pay for the ceilings to be plastered and repainted?”

The Portsmouth North MP, Sarah McCarthy-Fry, from the Department for Communities and Local Government, is to replace Miss Ussher.

The Labour MP David Chaytor claimed nearly £5,000 to pay his daughter Sarah under an assumed name, it was reported last night. Mr Chaytor submitted invoices for work done by “Sarah Rastrick”, whose address and mobile phone number were those of Miss Chaytor, 27, whose middle name is Rastrick.Mr Chaytor, the MP for Bury North, had already announced that he would step down at the next election after it was revealed that he had claimed £13,000 in interest on a “phantom mortgage”.

Mr Chaytor said yesterday that his daughter had adopted the “professional name for work purposes” and that she was “extremely well qualified and worked very long hours”. At the time of most of her father’s claims, she was a student at University College London.

Times Recommends

• Iran arrests relatives of opposition leaders
• Banksy rival has final word in art feud
• Electrician travels 175 miles to change bulb