Iain Duncan Smith has been cleared of any wrongdoing over the employment of his wife as diary secretary in his Westminster offices.

The committee on standards and privileges held an investigation after complaints were handed to parliamentary standards commissioner Sir Philip Mawer by figures including journalist Michael Crick.

"Mr Duncan Smith's financial arrangements may not have been ideal in the light of the current official interpretation of the various allowances available to him, but we would not be prepared to find a breach of the code in circumstances where such ambiguity exists," the report said.