IDS cleared over 'Betsygate'

Iain Duncan Smith declared himself "overjoyed" today as he was officially cleared of fiddling his expenses to pay wife Betsy a salary.

Praising her as "a wonderful woman", he said she had suffered "all shades of hell" after allegations she was paid for work that she did not do. "This has been a very difficult time for us but now at last it is over and we are looking forward as a family to getting on with our lives," he said in an emotional statement, after being exonerated of dishonesty by an all-party committee. "I am immensely pleased on her part as much as on my own that this wonderful woman has been cleared alongside me.

"My wife has been through all shades of hell in the last six months, and I think quite unnecessarily."

The standards and privileges committee rejected three complaints made by BBC journalist Michael Crick that Mrs

Duncan Smith was paid a £15,178 salary which was not justified by her work. It threw out an allegation that he was claiming housing allowance to which he was not entitled.

It did criticise the former Opposition leader for paying his wife and two other assistants from Commons allowances meant for constituency casework, when the trio were undertaking party political activities. This earned no rebuke because the MPs agreed the rules were "ambiguous" and needed tightening.

The committee criticised Mr Duncan Smith over his use of barristers to try to get the probe stopped on technicalities. The verdicts appeared to end a saga which precipitated his downfall as Tory leader. The allegations surfaced on the eve of the Tory conference last year.

He hinted today that he wanted the party to discipline the key witnesses against him - former Tory chief executive Mark MacGregor and exaide Dr Vanessa Gearson. Both are fighting seats for the party at the next election, and sources at Tory HQ said it was unlikely any action would be taken against them.

The three-month inquiry involved 22 witnesses and 400 pages of oral statements. Aides to Mr Duncan Smith testified that Betsy worked in her lunch hour to fulfil the 25 hours a week for which she was paid.

Dr Gearson and Mr MacGregor cast doubt on this in evidence, but parliamentary standards commissioner Sir Philip Mawer said he thought they were mistaken and had not sought to mislead. He blamed the saga on misunderstandings.

Committee members said there were "grave doubts" about the way Mr Crick - who made the complaints after his story for BBC2's Newsnight was spiked by nervous editors - got his story. Several Tory officials said they did not know they had been taped when speaking to Mr Crick and his researcher.