Junior Justice Minister Shahid Malik, who stepped down after he was drawn into a controversy over his parliamentary expenses, was cleared of wrongdoing on Tuesday and appointed to a new government post. Malik stepped down temporarily last month pending an inquiry into allegations by a newspaper that he paid below-market rent for a house, breaching the ministerial code.
The Daily Telegraph made the allegation as part of a series of reports about MPs' expense claims that have angered voters and rocked Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government. But Philip Mawer, Brown's adviser on ministerial interests, concluded that Malik had not broken the ministerial code, the prime minister's spokesman said.
"He (Mawer) has confirmed that the rent said to have been charged is reasonable in the light of market and other commercial considerations," the spokesman said. The government announced that Malik was being appointed to a new junior ministerial post in the Communities and Local Government Department as part of a government reshuffle. Malik, who protested his innocence throughout, was one of many politicians to suffer in the fallout from the expenses scandal.
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