ANGRY constituents filled Haverfordwest’s Picton Centre to capacity on Friday when MP Stephen Crabb announced that he will pay back £9,300 of stamp duty claimed retrospectively on his Pembrokeshire home.

As he answered questions from the audience, he maintained that the switching of his main home was not for financial gain. But the move did make him “a couple of hundred pounds a month better off”.

Mr Crabb said: “I’m not the kind of Tory MP who has £10,000 lying about to repay my expenses. A lot of local people don’t feel it is reasonable that I could buy a home and then claim back stamp duty retrospectively.

“It is difficult to justify in the cold light of day to local people. I suggested that I would pay it back. It’s going to require a major adjustment for us but that is what I am going to do.”

Following the meeting, acting secretary of Plaid Cymru Preseli Pembrokeshire constituency committee, Paul Sambrook, wrote to Mr Crabb complaining that he had not responded to a question about the wage paid to his wife as his part-time executive secretary.

He also called for a “full and clear breakdown” of Mr Crabb’s incidental expenditure provision since his election.

Responding to Plaid’s questions, Mr Crabb told the Mercury: “My wife Beatrice works as a valued member of my office team. She is eminently well-qualified for the position, having worked as a PA in the private sector before training as a town planner and then working for a number of years for a leading firm of chartered surveyors.

“Her salary is pegged to the middle of the House of Commons pay-band for a junior secretary which is £14,724-£26,102.

He added: “Like virtually all MPs, I do a considerable amount of work from home but I have never designated my home as an office for expenses purposes. I have never made any claims for household running costs out of my office allowance.”