Controversies
The Wintertons have been investigated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and he concluded that they misused their MPs' expenses to pay rent for a flat that they had already bought outright. Once the mortgage had been fully repaid, the Wintertons transferred the ownership of the flat into a family trust. Since 2002 they had paid the rent to their trust for living in the flat from their MPs' expenditure. The Committee accepted that the Wintertons had "at no stage attempted to conceal their arrangements". Winterton has said of his expenses "I try to tackle matters of expenses in a responsible way, I don't spend any more money than is absolutely necessary". This is at odds with his party's leader, David Cameron, who branded them as "indefensible". On 25 May 2009 it was announced that both the Wintertons would stand down as MPs at the next general election.
Winterton came in for criticism when he was accused of slapping Labour MP Natascha Engel's bottom. When asked if the accusation was true, Winterton replied: "I'm quite a normal person. Will I slap a colleague on the back, Will I slap a colleague in friendship? The answer is – it is certainly possible."
On 18 February 2010 during a BBC Radio 5 Live interview he defended MPs travelling first class by saying that people who travelled in standard class on trains were a "totally different type of people." Commenting to a BBC reporter, a Conservative spokesman stated that these remarks "...do not in any way represent the views of the Conservative Party."
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