HELEN GOODMAN attacked a newspaper’s attempts to make a scandal out of the fact that her family stayed in a holiday home – rather than a hotel – soon after she became a minister.

The Bishop Auckland MP, who is a Government whip, claimed £519.31 for one week’s stay in a stone holiday cottage called Bide-a-Wee, in the village of Romaldkirk, in Teesdale, County Durham, in August and September 2005.

Ms Goodman won her seat in the General Election three months earlier and had been staying in hotels – with her two children – while looking for a property to buy in her County Durham constituency.

The Daily Telegraph, which has been passed leaked MPs’ receipts, reported the story under the headline “Wish you were here? Labour MP claims a week in ‘cosy cottage’.”

Over the week in question, Ms Goodman attended six constituency events, a meeting of the Town Centre Forum, opened a care home, hosted a constituency surgery and visited a biodiesel factory, Arriva buses and a young offenders’ institution.

She said: “I could have stayed in a hotel, rather than rent a cottage, but it would have been more expensive, costing £600 or £700, as well as eating in restaurants, instead of self-catering. It took six months to get everything organised to meet my promise to make a home in the constituency.

We stayed in hotels most weekends, but that was very tiring for my family.

“The Daily Telegraph has shown serious impropriety in some of the claims that MPs have made, claims that were against the rules and were widely extravagant, but to try to put mine in that zone is mischievous.”

Ms Goodman’s receipts show that, having bought a “second home” in her constituency in early 2006, she claimed £10,071 stamp duty and £707.47 for a surveyor.

To buy the property, she took out a £365,000 mortgage and claimed mortgage interest payments of £1,456 a month, plus £686 for furniture, £341.05 on carpets and £180.50 for china. There were further payments of £350 for a walnut desk from an antique dealer, £1,210.73 for curtains, £696 for sofas, £202.50 for roller blinds and £243.60 for glass and china.

Ms Goodman said: “Anybody who has set up home from scratch and bought furniture knows that it is expensive.

“However, I paid for a lot of items myself – a bed, television, kitchen equipment, lights and bookshelves – and I ordered things from local shops, in order to support them.”