James Cleverly billed taxpayers £20k for his website and comms consultants

Tory James Cleverly charged taxpayers £20,000 updating his website and hiring people to advise him on ‘digital communications’, documents have revealed.

The former leadership contender, whom Kemi Badenoch named her Shadow Housing Secretary last month, claimed £7,000 on expenses for “Digital Communications Constituency Services” in March (2025), according to watchdog IPSA.

The same month he claimed a further £5,400 for “Comprehensive constituency communications and videography services.”

But unusually, IPSA’s records don’t say who the payments were made to.

It comes after Kemi Badenoch admitted she'd snitched on a child at school and had them expelled

Meanwhile, Mr Cleverly claimed a further £4,404 for “website hosting and design” for his website between May 2024 and March 2025 - more than £400 a month.

During the same period the average spend per month for MPs who claimed back the cost of their websites was £67.

Again, the records don’t say who the money was paid to.

Mr Cleverly did not respond to requests for comment.

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Kemi Badenoch brought Sir James, her former cabinet colleague during Rishi Sunak's administration, back into the fold in a reshuffle last month.

Sir James stood as a candidate in last year's Conservative leadership election, but lost out on the Tory top job ahead of the final heat between Mrs Badenoch and her now-shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick. Since the leadership contest, he has returned to the Tory back benches as the MP for Braintree.

In 2023 The Mirror reported the former Cabinet minister joked about giving his wife a date-rape drug, just hours after announcing a crackdown on the growing epidemic of drinks spiking. The top Tory told female guests at a No10 reception that “a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night” was “not really illegal if it’s only a little bit”.

A spokesman for the ex-Home Secretary said at the time: "In what was always understood as a private conversation, James, the Home Secretary tackling spiking, made what was clearly meant to be an ironic joke - for which he apologises."