Damian Green 2005 as a spokesman on home affairs and shadow minister for immigration. Green is Chairman of Parliamentary Mainstream, a vice-president of the Tory Reform Group and is a vice-chairman of the John Smith Memorial Trust. During the UK parliamentary expenses scandal "The Daily Telegraph" newspaper revealed that, although Green's constituency is a mere 45-minute commute from Westminster, he claimed expenses for a designated second home in Acton, west London. Green has regularly claimed expenses up to the maximum of £400 for food. He has also claimed for the interest on his mortgage, for his council tax, and for his phone
United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal were published over an extended period of time, with the focus moving to different MPs daily. As a result, there was significant pressure on MPs who did not know whether, and for what, they would be discussed, as well as a general deepening hostility that grew over a relatively long period. On 22 May 2009 Nadine Dorries, the Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire went on record in saying that many of her colleagues "feared a suicide" and that MPs were "beginning to crack". She likened the atmosphere in Westminster to that surrounding Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch hunts" of suspected Communists