Richard Benyon Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2009 until the 2010 general election when he entered government. He was also one of the first 15 MPs to support David Cameron's Conservative Party leadership bid. In May 2009, he was listed by "The Daily Telegraph" as one of the "saints" in the expenses scandal exposed by that newspaper. He was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the first Cameron Ministry. and remained in post until the junior and middle ranking Cameron reshuffle of October 2013. In 2012, while Wildlife
Bracknell (UK Parliament constituency) major scandal over his Parliamentary expenses. MacKay and his wife, fellow Tory MP Julie Kirkbride, had wrongfully claimed over £250,000 from the taxpayer for mortgage payments for second homes, in a case of so-called "double-dipping". They also wrongfully claimed for each other's travel costs. At a hastily called meeting with his constituents in Bracknell to explain the "unacceptable" expenses claims, Mr MacKay was jeered and called a 'thieving toad'. A video of the angry meeting was leaked to the press and after an urgent phone call from David Cameron the next day, MacKay agreed to stand down at the 2010