A CONSERVATIVE MP has written to the Inland Revenue demanding that David Blunkett, the former home secretary, should be taxed on his grace-and-favour London home.

Chris Grayling, the member for Epsom and Ewell, believes Blunkett ought to pay £50,000 a year to the taxman for the perk of living in his £3m Belgravia mansion.

Blunkett has remained in the house despite resigning from his cabinet job last month over the fast-tracking of a visa for his former lover’s nanny.

The South Eaton Terrace address is one of the most desirable in London. Grayling calculates that the rent would be about £150,000 a year for such a property situated in fashionable west London.

“David Blunkett is a backbench MP and is no more entitled to this property than I am,” he said. “If Downing Street is saying he should be there because of security concerns or whatever, then he should at least have it stated and taxed as a benefit like anyone else would.

“He is in the same tax bracket as most high earners and that means on a property with this sort of market value he should be taxed by the Inland Revenue to the tune of about £50,000. If he does not pay up he is getting an incredible freebie.”

Charles Clarke, Blunkett’s successor at the Home Office, has had extensive security improvements carried out on his own London home and appears happy to allow Blunkett to stay put.

No 10 says Blunkett has remained in the house for security reasons and will not confirm whether he would stay there “indefinitely”. A spokesman said it was not unusual for there to be a transition period in such cases.

Blunkett is widely tipped to return to frontline politics as early as May if, as expected, there is a general election at that time and Labour wins a third term. Tony Blair is preparing to offer him the role of party chairman and may prefer Blunkett to stay in his house as he will be out of government for only a short time.

The former home secretary’s salary dropped from £130,347 to the standard MP’s pay of £57,405 when he resigned, but he is entitled to up to three months’ severance pay. According to the Commons register of interests, Blunkett earns a rental income from his London home, which is in Wimble- don, of about £15,000 a year.

He has received more than £54,000 in the past three years from the taxpayer towards the maintenance of his home in his Sheffield constituency. He also rents a cottage on the Chatsworth estate of the Duchess of Devonshire.

Grayling is in addition seeking details through the Freedom of Information Act about who is footing the bills for the upkeep of the grace-and-favour home.

“On top of the tax question, this is about the bills being paid for him,” he said. “I want to know who is paying the electricity bills, for example, and I’m sure taxpayers would like to know if they are picking up the tab just because the prime minister feels a bit sorry for his old colleague.”

Blunkett’s relationship with his former lover Kimberly Quinn, the publisher, will continue to come under the spotlight. He maintains that he is the father of her unborn child and is also fighting for access to the two-year-old boy he fathered with Quinn.

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