Geoffrey Cox, Britain’s highest-paid MP, once had an expenses claim for a 49p pint of milk rejected by the Commons authorities.
The Tory MP for Torridge and West Devon, who works part-time as a barrister, also had a claim for £4.99 for “weedkiller for space in front of the constituency office” turned down.
The two claims, made in 2016, have come to light after it was revealed that the former attorney general earned hundreds of thousands from a second job that saw him vote in Parliament remotely from a Caribbean tax haven.
Cox – who has spoken in Parliament just once since being sacked from Boris Johnson’s frontbench in February 2020 – cast votes by proxy in the Commons from 4,000 miles away while he worked on his lucrative side-hustle.
It was revealed on Monday that Cox has earned more than £1 million from commercial legal work over the past year – on top of his £82,000 backbencher’s salary.
He is thought to have arrived in the British Virgin Islands on April 26 – when the Commons was debating global anti-corruption sanctions.
Coronavirus restrictions at the time meant MPs could participate in Commons debates via Zoo and vote by a proxy – meaning Cox did not have to come into Westminster.
Related: Brexit losses more than 178 times bigger than trade deal gains – research
