An adviser to Kate and Gerry McCann has admitted staying with Burnham-On-Sea MP Tessa Munt while she claimed a single resident’s discount, according to new claims by a national newspaper.
The Mail On Sunday reports today (August 8th) that David Hughes, a media adviser to the McCanns in the months after their daughter Madeleine disappeared, stayed with Ms Munt at her home in Mark, near Burnham.
The newspaper claimed in recent weeks that Tessa has been threatened with police action after it was discovered that BBC radio presenter Andy Kershaw and a local GP were recorded as living at her home while she was receiving the rebate.
The paper alleged last weekend that Ms Munt, who is separated from her husband, had a relationship with the doctor and charged him to rent a room in her house while she claimed to be living alone.
Mr Hughes reportedly told the newspaper that he had been quizzed by Sedgemoor District Council as part of its investigation into Ms Munt’s council tax bill and added that he had stayed at Tessa’s house for an unspecified period during the past two years while visiting his ex-wife and their children in Somerset. He is registered to vote at Ms Munt’s house although he had a house in London.
Mr Hughes advised the McCanns after three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from a holiday flat in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007.
The council’s investigation is focused on 2008, when both Dr Laband and Mr Kershaw were recorded as living at Ms Munt’s house, where Mr Kershaw was registered to vote.
A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: “None of these people was staying permanently with Ms Munt.” The full Mail story is online here.
