AN MP who formerly represented Dorset claimed more than £1,800 in expenses to buy 215 trees and fencing to mark out the boundary of his house.

Christopher Fraser, who was Conservative MP for mid Dorset and North Poole between 1997 and 2001 before losing the seat to Liberal Democrat Annette Brooke, used the money to buy 140 cherry laurels and 75 red cedars for his £350,000 house in his South West Norfolk constituency.

Mr Fraser also lives on a farm worth £1.2 million in Dorset and designates it as his “main home”, while letting out a smaller farmhouse on the same estate and the surrounding land. He also rents out another property in London.

Despite neither of his designated properties being in the capital, Mr Fraser told his local newspaper: “For a politician outside London, a second property is a necessity, not a luxury.”

Mr Fraser earns £64,766 and claimed £21,634 for his second home in 2005/06, £22,100 in 2006/07 and £23,022 in 2007/08.

The MP made the claims for trees worth £933 and fencing worth £875 in February 2007. It was initially challenged by the Commons fees office. But an official later approved the claim after speaking to the MP over the phone. “This is a property without any natural boundaries”, the official wrote in an email. “Mr Fraser felt that in order to provide security and privacy, fences and hedges were required.”

Other expense claims include £240 for a lawnmower and £70 for the emptying of his septic tank.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Mr Fraser said: “I have been conscious whenever claiming that my costs must be wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for the purposes of my parliamentary duties.”

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