MINISTER for Transport Simon Burns has hit back at claims he is once again using a taxpayer-funded chauffeur to drive him from Chelmsford to Parliament each day.
At 7am on July 11, the MP was photographed arriving at the House of Commons in a car – just months after he promised to stop using the £80,000-a-year ministerial vehicle and commute to and from London by train instead.
But the 60-year-old insists he continues to use the train between Chelmsford and London.
He said: "From January 21 that car has never driven me home."
Explaining his travel movements, Mr Burns said: "On Monday I drive up in my own car with my red boxes from Chelmsford and I stay in London as the Commons end up finishing very late, depending on the votes."
The ministerial red boxes contain official sensitive departmental documents, which Mr Burns says cannot be carried on public transport.
"On a Tuesday and Wednesday, it depends – if I'm not doing something work wise, I come back to Chelmsford.
"If I haven't got a box I'll take public transport.
"I'll go back to work via the train from Chelmsford.
"There will be one return journey a week when I drive my own car."
The rail minister added that he was always back in Chelmsford on Thursday nights.
Mr Burns said that he only used his ministerial pool car to get to his London accommodation when the votes in the Commons finished late on Mondays, and for other departmental duties and appointments around the capital.
He said: "The job does come with a pool car for the department – it drives me from the Department for Transport to the House of Commons.
"We have eight minutes to get to the division lobby when a vote starts and you cannot walk from the department in that time."
Mr Burns made the decision to use the train after the Mail on Sunday reported in January that he used a chauffeur-driven car to make the 35-mile journey to and from his Chelmsford home to central London, as revealed in the Chronicle two years earlier.
The story was picked up by most national newspapers and sparked a huge backlash from angry rail commuters.
This week the Mail Online accused Mr Burns of breaking his promise after he was photographed in the ministerial car again.
It claimed he stayed overnight in London for a few days a week and used the ministerial car to ferry him from his base in the capital either to his office in the Commons or his minister's office at the Department for Transport.
However, Mr Burns said that while he stays in the capital for at least one night a week and uses the car to get to his accommodation in London late at night, he does not claim expenses for it.
He said: "I am not charging the taxpayer any money for staying in London as I do.
"As I am the rail minister, I am not charging the taxpayer for using the trains from Chelmsford as I could."
Reacting to the recent claims, he added: "The most important thing is whether I'm doing a proper job or not."
