He was originally questioned by his local newspaper, the "Staines Informer", about why he had claimed the maximum allowance for a second home in London when his constituency home was in a commuter belt. During the interview he stated: "In 22 years of living in London, I have always furnished the flat out of my own pocket." However, four days later "The Daily Telegraph" revealed that Wilshire had an unusual arrangement whereby he claimed thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money for monthly payments towards the cost of interior decoration for his London flat, even though he didn't have to provide any receipts for the work. Wilshire was questioned about this by his local newspaper again, in which he said he was "embarrassed, sad and sorry", but he revealed that he had not spent the money allocated to him for decoration on this yet, but would do in the future, and therefore he refused to pay the money back or resign.