MPs who claim the most food on expenses.

The outgoing Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, claimed £1,050 for food during the 2007/08 recess.

MPs who claim the most food on expenses.

Parliament does not sit during July, August and September and many MPs reduce their spending during the period. But not John Prescott who also claimed £4,800 in 2007/08.

MPs who claim the most food on expenses.

Another MP who managed to spend his entire food allowance was Charles Clarke, the former home secretary.

MPs who claim the most food on expenses.

Tom Watson, the communications minister, also received the full amount.

MPs who claim the most food on expenses.

MPs are allowed to claim up to £400 a month for food. Nick Brown, former agriculture minister, claimed the maximum, £4,800 in one year.

Tory frontbencher Mike Penning claimed for dog bowl

The MP, whose constituency is 29 miles from Westminster, also charged £428.01 for a radiator in his cellar and £1,632 for fencing.

The £2.99 stainless steel vessel was one of several items bought on expenses by the shadow health minister for his second home in the constituency of Hemel Hempstead.

He bought the dog bowl in June 2005 with two sets of coasters, 10 coathangers, a ladle, a pair of scissors and two “cute dog fun mugs” from the home furnishings shop Dunelm Mill.

He said that he should not have charged for the dog bowl: “This was claimed for mistakenly, for which I apologise sincerely and will pay back.”

In June 2007, the former Grenadier Guard said Army cooks were struggling to feed troops on £1.51 a day, while military dogs were being fed on more than £2.63 a day.

That same year, he moved to a larger property in Hemel Hempstead where his wife Angela and their two daughters live.

Mr Penning claimed £10,049 in stamp duty in February 2007 and was paid £8,750.55, before submitting expenses for the painting of two bedrooms and to fix his roof. The MP, whose constituency is 29 miles from Westminster, also charged £428.01 for a radiator in his cellar and £1,632 for fencing.

Mr Penning said the cellar doubled as his office and the radiator was installed after a flood, while the fences were put in place for security reasons.

He said he did not claim for furniture, but charged for structural repairs because of “damaged guttering” and painted the bedrooms to make them habitable.

In June 2008, the MP said he stopped claiming for a second home as the property became his only residence.

“I sold my house in [...] June last year, at a substantial loss due to the state of the housing market.

“I now only own one home – which is in the constituency – and I commute to work in parliament.” Mr Penning said he had wanted to move his family to Hemel Hempstead when he was elected in 2005, but had to wait until his daughters finished school.

“The change in the designation of my main home was due to my legitimate desire to base my family in my constituency, allowing me to better carry out my parliamentary duties.

“This only became possible once my children had finished school in Essex.”

Mike Penning

Job: shadow health minister

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: n/a

2005-06: £21,513

2006-07: £22,210

2007-08: £23,083

Ian Austin tried to split the stamp duty on sunsets in Waterloo

Ian Austin completed the purchase of the Waterloo flat on March 31 2006 but submitted claims for the stamp duty in two separate amounts: £6,770 on March 28 and £1,344 on April 3.

This allowed him to claim the majority of the money under his second home allowance for the financial year 2005-06. In total, he received £21,559 — £75 below the limit — that year.

His claim for the remaining £1,344 was turned down by the parliamentary fees office.

However, the Dudley North MP was allowed to claim the legal costs associated with the move in his 2006-07 expenses. In that financial year, he went on to claim £22,076 — £34 short of the maximum.

Mr Austin also “flipped” his second home designation weeks before buying the £270,000 flat across the Thames from Westminster.

The assistant whip is one of Gordon Brown’s closest allies and worked for him as an adviser in the Treasury before he was made an MP in 2005.

When Mr Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, Mr Austin was appointed as his parliamentary aide before being moved to the role of Minister for the West Midlands last year. He was closely connected to Damian McBride, the adviser who left Downing Street last month after he sent emails suggesting possible smears for top Conservatives.

Among Mr Austin’s other claims was £467 for a stereo in his constituency shortly before he changed his second home designation to London. He then spent more than £2,800 furnishing the new flat, claiming £1,199 for a DVD player and television, although this was reduced to £1,000.

In the 2006-07 financial year, he claimed a further £1,298 for a sofa and armchair from Marks and Spencer, although the receipt was dated March 21 2006 – during the financial year that had already finished. The next year, he claimed £154 for electrical goods and £171 for bedding, plus a further £700 for a bed and bedside table and £199 for a vacuum cleaner.

Mr Austin said that an error in adding up the costs of his move had led to his claim for stamp duty being turned down. “The fees office advised us to split the costs associated with the purchase of my London accommodation over the two financial years,” he said.

“There was a straightforward error when adding up the costs. The fees office pointed this out, I apologised for adding it up wrongly and the correct amount was claimed. No payment was made or received as a result of this simple error.”

He added that he had claimed for the sofa and armchair “in line with advice from the fees office”.


Ian Austin

Job: assistant whip

Salary: £89,522

Total second home claims

2004-05: N/A

2005-06: £21,559

2006-07: £22,076

2007-08: £21,925

Peter Hain's new wife, new home and new shed roof

Peter Hain's claims show he used more than £6,000 worth of heating oil at his home in Neath in just over two years.

Mr Hain, who served in both Tony Blair’s and Gordon Brown’s Cabinet, also charged the cost of a new tin roof for his “log store” to the taxpayer.

According to Mr Hain’s files, he asked if he could claim the mortgage interest on a £440,000 new home which be bought with his second wife Elizabeth Hayward in 2004 — as well as claiming for his former home six miles away.

The Commons fees office noted that Mr Hain had made the request under the additional costs allowance (ACA) scheme because of a change in his “personal circumstances”.

An official wrote: “You propose to deal with the cross-over period by claiming the interest on both mortgages from the ACA. I am afraid, regrettably, that this is not permissible since only one home can be nominated at any one time.”

Mr Hain claimed the maximum amount under the ACA scheme in the past two years. His claims show he used more than £6,000 worth of heating oil at his home in Neath in just over two years.

However, a bill for £357 in February 2006 was not honoured in full because, Mr Hain was told, he had run out of funds for that year.

Mr Hain told The Daily Telegraph he had tried to claim on both homes “so that I could carry out my parliamentary and ministerial duties efficiently over the period of the [house] move.

“When I was informed that this was not possible, I submitted claims for the new property exclusively, and none for the old one.”

He said he had to replace the log store roof “as the old plastic one had been destroyed in a gale. I use logs when I can to offset oil heating bills and have never claimed for such logs”.

On the heating oil bill, Mr Hain said he did not believe the cost was excessive. He added that he had never claimed for luxury items or “flipped” homes.

Peter Hain

Job: Labour MP for Neath

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: £19,519

2005-06: £21,634

2006-07: £22,110

2007-08: £23,083

Tory MP repays £12,000 after Telegraph pressure

Simon Heffer declared his intention to run against Sir Alan Haselhurst.

Mr Heffer today became the latest high-profile individual driven by disgust at the expenses practices exposed by this newspaper to declare himself a potential candidate to unseat an MP whose expenses have caused concern.

Sir Alan Haselhurst, the Conservative deputy speaker, is repaying £12,000 of his MP's expenses.

In his latest column, he announced that he was prepared to run against Sir Alan, who is currently Mr Heffer’s MP for Saffron Walden in Essex, and who used his allowances to pay for £12,000-worth of gardening at his country house.

Mr Heffer had already been canvassing opinion in the constituency for some days when the MP announced yesterday that he was repaying the money.

"My claim for gardening help has caused concern," Sir Alan said.

"I deeply regret the public anger which the expenses revelations have understandably generated."

He said he will abide by any recommendations made by an independent audit body examining the expense claims.

But Sir Alan claimed: “The expense claims I made over recent years have been strictly in accordance with parliamentary rules.

“The designation of my constituency home as my second home instead of my rented flat in London was obligatory on my becoming Deputy Speaker.

“In terms of total expense claims I currently rank 582nd out of 646 MPs."

Mr Heffer said: "I set down some conditions that I hoped Sir Alan would feel able to abide by. From what he has said to his local newspaper, it appears he has seen sense.

“I can understand what a difficult business it must have been to reverse the position he took so stridently in his letter to his constituents last week.

“Obviously, if Sir Alan has done what I and others intended, then I will have no course to stand against him. I and his constituents must wait and see what indeed happens.

“I know there are many in the constituency who believe that to pay the money back and apologise is not enough and who would hope to have a new Conservative candidate. Clearly, this would be a matter for Sir Alan’s constituency association in Saffron Walden.”

Mr Heffer joined the growing ranks of public figures who have come forward offering to unseat MPs seen to have abused the system. They include Esther Rantzen, the broadcaster and campaigner, who confirmed on Tuesday that she would stand against Margaret Moran in Luton South unless the Labour MP resigned over her expenses, including £22,500-worth of dry rot treatment at a house 100 miles from her constituency.

Robert Harris, the writer, said he had considered challenging Alan Duncan, the shadow Leader of the House, whose gardening claims have attracted public outrage .

Lynn Faulds Wood, the television consumer campaigner, has also said that she is considering running for a parliamentary seat on an anti-sleaze ticket.

And in a sign that the next general election may prove even more colourful than Martin Bell’s “white suit” challenge to the disgraced Tory MP Neil Hamilton in 2001, David Van Day, the former Dollar singer, said he was planning to oppose Nadine Dorries, the Conservative who has spoken out against The Daily Telegraph’s investigation.

In his column, Mr Heffer explained his motivation for challenging Sir Alan for his Saffron Walden seat.

“If he does not, between now and the opening of nominations for the general election, admit error, apologise, pay back the £12,000 and promise to behave, I shall stand against him as an independent," he said.

"If Sir Alan thinks I am joking, I warn him I am not. I have backers and volunteers. I say this more in anger than in sorrow: we are all angry. Doesn’t he get it?”

Mark Hendrick admits estimating claims for mortgage interest

Mark Hendrick 'flipped; his designated second home to his constituency address after making claims on a London flat.

Mark Hendrick, the MP for Preston, said he had found it difficult to work out how much the interest element of the mortgage on his London flat came to, and so tried to “work on an average for the year”.

Under parliamentary rules, MPs may claim for the interest on a second home but not the capital repayment.

Mr Hendrick regularly submitted claims for between £900 and £1,015 a month on his London flat, before “flipping” his second home designation to a house in his constituency, where his claims rose to £1,469.

When contacted by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hendrick insisted that he had always acted in line with the rules but refused to disclose his mortgage documents to confirm his statement. He said he regularly provided the Commons fees office with copies of his mortgage documents. None appears on files seen by The Daily Telegraph.

Asked why his mortgage interest varied from month to month, Mr Hendrick said: “My mortgage was a capital plus interest mortgage. Therefore, payments included both, and I did not know until the end of the year from my statement exactly how much of the payment was interest, therefore I tried to work on an average for the year as a whole.

“However, at the end of each year, this was always rectified with an accurate interest figure derived from my statement.

“The fees office have had detailed mortgage information from my bank over the 2004 to 2008 period concerned. I shall be happy to provide them with any further information they require.”

In 2008, Mr Hendrick submitted a one-off claim for £1,344.54, saying that this was for “unclaimed mortgage”. Similar claims did not appear for other years.

He said: “I was trying to ascertain the correct amount and on occasions phoned my bank to work out what changes there were in interest over the months of that financial year. My estimate at the time was as you indicate.”

The records show that hundreds of other MPs were able to obtain accurate monthly interest statements from their lenders, even when their mortgages included a repayment element.

Mr Hendrick also submitted regular expenses for furniture and decorating work in March, just before the end of the financial year and the annual deadline for submissions under the additional costs allowance, which MPs used to fund a second home.

These included claims for a bed for £1,590, which the fees office reduced to £1,000.

In a letter to officials, the MP argued that he should be paid the full cost of the bed, saying: “This is the first bed I have bought since I was elected six years ago, and I can now wake up in the morning without aching, which was a problem with my previous bed. I would hope, therefore, that you will honour this claim in full.”

A number of Mr Hendrick’s claims, including the bed, a ­television costing £599.99 and washer-dryer for £799.90, were purchased in Preston, at a time when his London flat was ­designated as his second home. He insisted that all the furniture was correctly claimed for, and denied that his purchases were “unreasonable or excessive”.

Claims for £2,616.12 for new doors, £1,522 for glazing, and £1,137 for new fences, gates and were “necessary maintenance and repair,” he added.

Mr Hendrick said he moved his designation after he returned to the back benches in 2007, having been demoted from his post as an aide to Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary.

Mark Hendrick

Job: Labour MP for Preston

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: £20,902

2005-06: £21,471

2006-07: £21,867

2007-08: £16,226

Minister Gareth Thomas used public money for £1,000 accountancy bill

In all The Daily Telegraph has disclosed that more than 40 ministers have claimed of at least £25,000 in MPs' expenses for accountants' fees to help fill out their tax returns.

Many of them joined three Cabinet colleagues in paying for advice from HW Fisher, a London-based accountancy firm which specialises in helping unions avoid paying too much tax.

Documents filed by Mr Thomas, MP for Harrow West, show that he billed the fees' office for £1087.05 for the cost of "making a claim for repayment of excess Class 1 contributions paid in the 2006/07 tax year (£2,021.71)."

The fee, which was paid in full by the Commons' authorities, also covered the cost of "preparation and submitting the claim of Class 1 National Insurance Contributions for the 2007/078 tax year" by a Middlesex-based chartered accountancy firm.

Mr Thomas, who in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is in charge of championing the rights of consumers, defended billing the taxpayer.

He said: "I hired an accountant to ensure my tax affairs as a constituency MP were in order. As part of that process in this year he calculated I had overpaid tax due to my ministerial salary and the money was reclaimed.

"In other years he has estimated I owed tax and I have made appropriate payments to HMRC. I believed that having my books properly examined by a qualified accountant was a legitimate expense and the Fees Office backed that judgement."

It also emerged that two other MPs - home office ministers Meg Hillier and Vernon Coaker - used Dennis Bates, the husband of Meg Hillier, to help prepare their tax return and then bill the taxpayer for the cost.

In each case the bills for £345 were charged in full to the taxpayer. On Tuesday The Daily Telegraph revealed that Mr Bates had advised five ministers, including David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, on their personal tax returns.

None of the profession's qualification bodies - the Institute of Chartered Accounts in England and Wales, the Association of Certified Accountants nor the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants - said he was registered with them.

Neither Mrs Munn nor Mr Bates were at their home in Yorkshire. Mr Bates is understood to be 59, born in Birmingham. He married Mrs Munn in Nottingham in May 1989.

Speaking from his home in Sutton Coldfield, John Bates, 76, Dennis's brother, said: "I cant believe that he would have been involved in something like this.

"I haven't spoken to Dennis about it as he's away on holiday in Shropshire in a rented cottage. All these expenses claims are disgusting and it seems they are all very loose.

"The whole system could have been better controlled and should have better structured in terms of what MPs can and cannot claim.

"I'm very surprised that Dennis is connected, and Meg has always seemed very nice. I couldn't imagine Meg being involved either."

Rosie Cooper's £915 for abandoned flat deal as claims taken to wire

The former councillor from Liverpool was elected to Parliament at her fifth attempt

She had planned to buy a flat in Lambeth, south east London, before opting for one in Pimlico.

She claimed £11,324 in stamp duty for the Pimlico property and spent £5,000 on furnishings before embarking on a £16,000 renovation of the flat.

The expenditure of the MP for West Lancashire, who was elected in 2005, rose dramatically in the last days of each financial year, bringing her close to the maximum annual allowance.

Miss Cooper said the work would benefit the public purse. “I have previously stated that any profit realised when the flat is eventually sold will be given to Parliament on behalf of taxpayers,” she said.

Her claims will raise concerns that some MPs spend large sums of taxpayers’ money on relatively modest properties in an apparent attempt to “use up” their maximum entitlements.

On March 31, 2006, Miss Cooper paid £11,324 in stamp duty and legal fees on her flat in Pimlico. Land registry records state that she paid £330,000 for the flat in July 2006.

Other purchases claimed on the last day of that financial year were a steam cleaner, curtains and picture frames.

On March 26, she bought a bed for £1,314 and a three-piece suite for £2,098. The fees office paid out £1,114 and £2,000, respectively.

At the end of the next financial year, Miss Cooper made several claims. She paid a £5,000 deposit to a builder on March 30, 2007, for work on a new kitchen and new bathroom. The quote for work on the kitchen and the bathroom came to £16,903.

Miss Cooper said that only the first £5,000 was covered by the second home allowance and that she had paid £12,654 towards the work. She added that the flat had an old kitchen and was “in poor condition” when she bought it.

The day after she had paid the deposit to the builder, Miss Cooper bought a television from John Lewis for £899 – the figure was reduced by the fees office to £750 – and claimed an extra £35 for its delivery. The sale was completed at 6.50pm.

She also claimed for a fridge (£199) and an AEG washing machine (£349) from John Lewis on the same day. Delivery and disposal charges were an extra £50.

In total, Miss Cooper, the ministerial aide to Ben Bradshaw, the health minister, claimed £65,465 in three years.

She said she claimed the second home allowance for “one off costs for fixed or big ticket items which are easily identifiable and which can be returned to Parliament or a local charity should Parliament not want them.”

The former councillor from Liverpool was elected to Parliament at her fifth attempt. She had previously stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate.

She attracted controversy in 2006 after writing to Downing Street to seek “an assurance” that Baroness Thatcher would not be considered for a state funeral.

Miss Cooper said that she would pay capital gains tax on any profit from her flat and added: “The original flat purchase fell through and those costs were only incurred because, as a newly elected MP from the North West, I needed accommodation in London to do my work representing the people of west Lancashire.”

Rosie Cooper

Job: Labour MP for West Lancashire

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2005-06: £20,382

2006-07: £22,000

2007-08: £23,083

Special meeting at Unity House, 23rd of May 2009

A special meeting was called today at Unity House, with union representatives present from the various renewals companies that were balloted earlier on in the month for industrial action.

Present were Mick Cash and a number of other members of the union's executive council, the principal topic was what were we going to do as the next step. The ballot results had been in awhile and the deadline for acting was upon us.

The decision was for action, whether it be strike action or action short of striking which was determined by the ballot at each compny.

This fact will be conveyed to all concerned, the dates and times of any action.

Our full time union officer wasn't able to be present, as he was elsewhere at a meeting with company management discussing the subject of pending job losses, etc. One of our union representative was able to attend this meeting, but I can't say much more than that until we hear from him about it.

That's pretty much it at present, nothing particularly promising at all, especially with the announcement on the high output work being put back apparently till January next year by Network Rail.

Political Cartoons

John Greenway claimed £500 for plants and 59p for box of matches

John Greenway claimed for petunias, geraniums, fuchsia and lobelia plants, a rose and a lavender bush for his designated second home

Mr Greenway, the MP for Ryedale, also spent more than £3,500 on household goods and furnishings, including redecorating bills, a £399 flat screen television set and crockery from the Habitat store.

Expenses filed under the additional costs allowance (ACA) show that Mr Greenway claimed for petunias, geraniums, fuchsia and lobelia plants, a rose and a lavender bush for his designated second home.

He also claimed for a box of matches worth 59p as well as two boxes of firelighters worth 99p each, four bags of compost, a trellis and plant food. He regularly claimed for £400 of food a month.

Under Commons rules, MPs are only able to claim for garden maintenance bills. Mr Greenway claimed more than £1,900 to redecorate the hall, kitchen, bathroom and stairs in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

His claims show he billed the taxpayer for eight mulled wine sachets in the run-up to Christmas, 2004.

He also claimed for cups and saucers worth £44, a £24 lavatory brush and a casserole dish worth £30.

At the end of that year, 2004-05, Mr Greenway submitted a bill for £105 for food, with a handwritten note saying: “I believe there is slightly more than £100 in the allowance still to claim. Please advise when making payment.” He received £102.07 from the fees office.

Mr Greenway bought the house in south London with his wife Sylvia for £211,000. Shortly after the redecoration and investment in his garden, they sold the house for £493,000 in September 2006. They then bought a property in west London.

Yesterday the new owner, Simone Lester, 37, told The Daily Telegraph that the 15ft by 20ft patio garden was a “key selling point” when she and her partner bought the three-bedroom house.

Miss Lester, who works for the Department of Health, said: “When we came for the viewing, I was struck by how immaculate the house was.

“Mr Greenway showed us around and it was clear that he was immensely proud of the garden. The garden was a key selling point.’’

Last night, Mr Greenway said he had paid capital gains tax when he sold he property. He had not claimed any of the moving costs or stamp duty from the taxpayer.

He said: “All the claims which I have made over my 22 years in Parliament have been made in good faith and were approved by the fees office without query.

“The pattern of expenditure on my London home over a number of years has reflected precisely the expenditure and living costs that I pay for myself at my main home in North Yorkshire. The repairs and redecoration which I claimed for 2004 and 2005 were the first I claimed since buying the house and represent normal wear and tear on the property.”

John Greenway

Job: Backbench Conservative MP

Salary: £64,766

Total second home claims

2004-05: £20,902

2005-06: £21,634

2006-07: £22,109

2007-08: £23,082

Claims used to pay more than £150,000 to Tory party

Liam Fox

Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the House of Commons, paid £42,000 to the Rutland and Melton Conservative Association, while Michael Gove, shadow children’s secretary, paid £27,000 to Surrey Heath Conservative Association.

Alan Duncan

Meanwhile, Liam Fox, the shadow health secretary, pays £9,000 a year to the Woodspring Conservative Association in Bristol. On Monday it emerged that three Cabinet ministers had paid tens of thousands of pounds to the Labour Party through their local party associations.

Michael Gove

The large sums of money – which the MPs attribute to rent, office space, telephone services and personnel – are likely to raise concerns about the way in which political parties are funded by the public purse.

Andrew Mitchell

According to The Green Book, MPs “must avoid any arrangement which may give rise to the suggestion that public money is being diverted for the benefit of a political organisation”. There are fears that the money could be funnelled into general accounts, which could be used to fund campaigning.

Kenneth Clark

The expenses claims seen by The Telegraph showed that two Tory shadow ministers had to pay money back to the fees office because their associations had been overpaid.

Eric Pickles

But last night, each shadow cabinet member insisted their claims were legitimate. Andrew Mitchell, the shadow international development secretary, has paid Sutton Coldfield Conservative Association an annual payment of around £8,000 for the last four years. He said: “The rent I pay is below the market rate and has been carefully set as a percentage of the cost of the office which reflects the use I make of it.”

Mr Duncan, who repaid £750 in 2005 after the overspend was noticed, said the mistake had been made by the fees office and described his rental arrangements as “exemplary”. He said: “There is the most clear distinction between the parliamentary and the political, and all rental and service costs have always been determined at arms length by an independent professional surveyor.” Mr Gove said a reference to “rent token amount of £1 p.a” in his invoice from the association in 2007 was because he paid below the market rent, as he had for the last four years. “I pay less than the market rate for rent,” he said. “My contribution is intended to reimburse my share of the cost of utilities and other bills.”

Mr Fox, who had to repay £6,000 in August 2004, blamed an administrative error by the fees office. He said he believed his £9,000 annual payment was good value for money: “They arrange my surgeries, they do some of my casework, and they do a huge amount of secretarial work which probably represents an underpayment for the amount of work they do.” Kenneth Clarke, the shadow business secretary, said the £6,000 he paid to Rushcliffe Conservative Association between 2006 and 2008 was not rent but the cost of hiring a room at £50 an hour. “We fixed this rate after my officers made local enquiries to ascertain the market rent in the area,” he said.

One claim between April and June 2007 totalled £750. An official at the fees office wrote on the expenses form at the time: “Seems expensive, though no basis to challenge member”. Eric Pickles, shadow secretary for communities and local government, said the £1,000 payment he made to the Brentwood and Ongar Conservative Association for “administration, storage and equipment” in 2007 was a one-off.

Julie Kirkbride's brother buys gadgets and they appear on her expenses

Julie Kirkbride, MP for Bromsgrove

The equipment, which included a digital camera, was bought by Ian Kirkbride, and delivered to him at the MP’s publicly funded “second home”, where he has lived rent-free for five years.

Miss Kirkbride, 48, then put the receipts through her office expenses account, and successfully claimed the money back. During the same period, she separately claimed £220 for another digital camera for her office.

The disclosures will add to the pressure on Miss Kirk­bride, whose husband, Andrew MacKay, was forced to announce on Saturday that he would stand down from parliament over anger at the couple’s use of expenses.

Mr Kirkbride, 59, bought a digital camera, five memory cards, four internet routers, three external hard drives, a computer printer, map software and a battery. The items, which totalled £1,000.52, were delivered to him at Miss Kirkbride’s Redditch flat between March 2005 and October 2007.

He works as an IT consultant from the property, which is near Miss Kirkbride’s Bromsgrove constituency. She claims he also lives there to help care for her eight-year-old son, Angus. Asked yesterday why she needed the cameras, Miss Kirkbride said: “I record my work as an MP in pictures.

“I often ask my brother to source IT equipment for me … These items were bought by my brother, on my instructions,” she said.

Miss Kirkbride has bought several other electrical items in her own name in the past four  years. She bought another internet router for herself in June last year and had it delivered to her property in West­minster. She also pays for a “home office” internet service for her London flat.

In December 2005, she claimed £50 from her office expenses to pay for 200 correspondence cards bought by her brother. Miss Kirkbride said yesterday that the cards had been produced for her.

She claimed £500 for a television in 2005, and then tried to claim £765 for an LCD television in February 2008. But after discussions with officials, they agreed it should be paid for from her second home expenses.

Between March and May 2005, she also claimed £1,000 for two photo shoots and prints. She then claimed £1,020 for another photo shoot in October 2006.

The disclosures come after Mr MacKay announced on Saturday that he would stand down as MP for Bracknell at the next election.

He was pushed to make the announcement by David Cameron, the Tory leader, after constituents expressed their anger over the couple’s use of expenses. Over the past eight years, they have claimed almost £250,000 in second home expenses by designating two different properties as their “second home”.

Miss Kirkbride designated the couple’s Westminster home as her main address and claimed expenses on the property in Redditch, where her brother lived. Meanwhile, Mr MacKay claimed second home expenses for the property in London.

Tories paid Nick Wood, party’s former spin doctor, £66,000 for advice

Nick Wood of Media Intelligence Partners, former communications director of the Conservative Party

Claims lodged with the Commons fees office show that more than £66,000 was paid to Media Intelligence Partners, which was founded and run by Nick Wood, the party’s former director of communications, by four Tory MPs. It boasts on its website of how it “exists to help clients negotiate the media minefield — irrespective of their line of business”. It claims that “swift and incisive rebuttal of hostile headlines” are “also vital weapons in the battle for public opinion”.

Mr Wood is a former Times journalist and advised both Mr Duncan Smith and another former leader, William Hague.

Commons rules state that “advice for individual members on self-promotion or PR for individuals or political parties” is banned.

Mr Duncan Smith claimed more than £11,000 on his office expense account for services between June 2005 and December 2007.

Andrew Mitchell, the shadow international development secretary, billed the taxpayer for £18,800 for “research and secretarial services” between April 2006 and July 2008. Nadine Dorries, the Tory MP for Mid-Bedfordshire, claimed almost £20,000 in office expenses for “research” from the consultancy between November 2006 and May last year, while Philip Dunne, another backbencher, claimed for £17,000 for “research and secretarial services”.

Mr Duncan Smith said that the money had been used to research two reports produced by his think tank, the Centre for Social Justice, that set out his plans to “mend our broken society”. “It’s not about promoting me, it’s about the issue,” he said. “I am determined to change society and Nick has an integral role in that. I am immensely proud of the work we’ve done.”

Ms Dorries, who last week denounced a “witch-hunt” of MPs over expenses, said her claims were for her campaign to reduce the upper legal limit for abortions from 24 weeks to 20 weeks. “It is impossible as a backbencher to run a campaign of that size out of your office unless you have additional help,” she said.

Mr Wood defended the payments. Typically the MPs would pay for the research work – and then receive PR advice for free. “We have done extensive research for them in connection with their parliamentary duties,” he said. “It is perfectly legitimate that companies such as mine should be able to work for MPs. I believe it is within the rules as they are only paying for research and policy advice.”

In Ms Dorries’s case the company sought advice on abortion from an expert in America, while the work for Mr Dunne was on funding local government and education projects. Mr Mitchell was advised on international development issues.

Mr Dunne said the company supported him in relation to his parliamentary duties. He appointed the company “entirely on its own merits”, he said, adding that he did not know Mr Wood when he was employed by the Conservative Party.

Alice Mahon Backs NO2EU

PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday May 26 2009

Immediate

 

www.no2eu.com

 

No2EU – Yes to Democracy confirms programme of election broadcasts as former Labour MP Alice Mahon declares her support

 

No2EU – Yes to Democracy today confirmed a full schedule of election broadcasts this week and announced that former Labour MP Alice Mahon will declare her support for the No2EU coalition at a public meeting in Birmingham tonight.

 

Alice Mahon resigned from the Labour Party last month after 50 years of membership. She was the MP for Halifax from 1987 to 2005.

 

Mrs Mahon in her resignation letter said she could no longer be a member of a party "that at leadership level has betrayed many of the principles that inspired me as a teenager to join".  Her letter, sent to former colleagues in her Halifax constituency, was sharply critical of Labour's failure to deliver a promised referendum on the EU "Lisbon Treaty".

 

"If that Treaty is ratified", she wrote, "we can say goodbye to any publicly owned services...... we will be handing over to private corporations, social services, education, transport and postal services.  Even the NHS will be up for grabs".

 

Alice Mahon will be joined on the platform at Carrs Lane Church Centre in Birmingham at 7.30pm  tonight by former Labour Coventry MP Dave Nellist who is standing on the No2EU slate.

 

No2EU's election broadcast programme kicks off tonight and will roll out over the week:

 

Channel Five - Tuesday May 26, 6.55pm

 

S4C – Wednesday May 27, 7.25pm (Welsh language)

 

BBC one - Wednesday May 27, 10.35pm

 

BBC two - Wednesday May 27, 11.20pm

 

BBC Wales - Wednesday May 27, 10.35pm

 

BBC Scotland – Wednesday May 27, 10.35pm

 

ITV Scotland – Wednesday May 29, 10.30pm 

 

ITV – Friday May 29, 10.30pm

 

ITV Wales – Friday May 29, 10.30pm

 

Bob Crow, No2EU Convenor, said:

 

"Today we've seen that the spotlight is at last turning on the EU gravy train and the levels of greed amongst MEP's which make our Westminster MP's look like rank amateurs when it comes to lining their pockets at our expense. No2EU is standing for public services, democracy and workers rights against the gravy train and the sleaze and corruption of the bosses and bankers Europe."

Jacqui Smith put husband’s iPhone on expenses

Miss Smith bought the top-of-the-range mobile phone for Richard Timney, her husband of 22 years, who is paid to work as her constituency office manager in Redditch.

Documents appear to show she then began claiming expenses to cover the cost of both their monthly mobile telephone bills.

Top of the range: the Apple iPhone

Mr Timney embarrassed his wife earlier this year, when it emerged that the cost of two pornographic films he watched at their home had been included on one of her expenses claims.

Miss Smith billed taxpayers for 90 per cent of the cost of the phone, on the basis that 90 per cent of the calls made by Mr Timney would be related to her work as an MP.

As well as working as a regular phone, the iPhone handset allows users to surf the internet, listen to their music collection and play computer games.

In a letter sent to the Commons fees office in January last year, Miss Smith wrote: “Until now I have not claimed for the use of my mobile phone, nor that of Richard Timney... I should like to claim for both phones from now on and backdate the claim to the start of this financial year. “I would estimate that 90 per cent of the costs are related to my work as an MP... I hope that this estimation is acceptable.”

She submitted a receipt from a shop in Redditch, which showed she had paid £268 for an Apple iPhone with an 18-month contract. She claimed back £242.10.

Mr Timney made a public apology in March after admitting that he had watched two adult films that featured on an expenses claim made by his wife. He said that he had submitted the bill for the adult films “accidentally”.

A source close to Miss Smith said last night that her husband had only ever claimed for the cost of the Apple iPhone, which was comparable with the cost of a BlackBerry phone. The source denied that she charged for any bills.

Departing MPs to get a £20m payoff

Polling experts believe that a combination of forced resignations, early retirements and electoral defeats will mean that the next election will see the biggest turnover of MPs since the Second World War.

This could mean £20 million is needed for the generous, publicly funded “golden goodbye” packages given to MPs to help them adjust to being made unemployed.

MPs who stay on until the general election before stepping down or being voted out will be given up to a whole year’s salary of £64,766 after they leave.

The amount they are given will vary according to their age and how long they have served. All will receive between 50 and 100 per cent of the annual salary. The first £30,000 of this “resettlement grant” is tax free. In addition to this, all MPs who leave parliament are given a “winding-up allowance” of £40,799. This is given primarily in order to allow them to pay off their departing office staff, many of whom are spouses or relatives. It is also used to cover other costs associated with leaving office, such as terminating lease agreements.

Research by Professor Colin Rallings of Plymouth University and published in The Sunday Times suggests that about 170 Labour MPs will not defend their seats at the next election. About 55 Tories will retire. Dozens more MPs will be voted out.

Earlier this month, Michael Martin, the Speaker, vetoed a proposal that MPs who voluntarily stand down at a general election should not be allowed to claim the severance package.

MPs who quit in the middle of a parliament are already blocked from claiming it.

All this comes in addition to a generous final salary pension scheme. MPs who have served 20 years can retire with a pension of about £30,000 a year.

Defence minister Quentin Davies insured antiques on expenses

Quentin Davies in his office at Portculis House

Quentin Davies, who employs his French wife, Chantal, as his parliamentary assistant, nominated the listed building in Lincolnshire as his second home, while his main home was a small flat near Westminster.

Mr Davies, a former Tory frontbencher who defected to Labour when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, spent close to the maximum under the additional costs allowance (ACA) in each year from 2004 to 2008.

Among the items he claimed for were buildings insurance for his historic home and contents insurance to cover antiques and other valuable items.

Mr Davies, the MP for Grantham and Stamford and a defence minister, told The Sunday Telegraph last night: “I believe that all my expense claims have at all times been entirely legitimate. I have absolutely nothing to hide.

“I choose to live in a house in Lincolnshire, the upkeep and maintenance of which certainly costs considerably more than the total allowance available under the ACA, and always has and will. I make no complaint about that – it is simply a personal choice.”

“Window frame works”, at a total cost of £10,033.33, appeared in a claim submitted by Mr Davies for January to March 2005, which was funded by the Commons fees office.

He said last night: “The windows were in a bad state and in some cases the sashes had begun to rot. The job clearly needed to be done and soon. We had secured quotes before contracting for it.”

Later that year, Mr Davies claimed contents insurance as well as buildings insurance.

He said: “You will notice that I have not claimed insurance each year (though I obviously insure every year).” He said he believed he had claimed for insurance for only four out of his 22 years as an MP.

In May 2008, the minister wrote to the fees office to say he had “inadvertently miscalculated” the amount of mortgage interest he paid when making a claim under the ACA for the period November 2007 to March 2008.

He asked officials to “destroy” his previous claim form, which included a mortgage claim for £9,100.38, and to replace it with a new form which included a lower mortgage interest claim — this time for £3,675.

However, instead of offering to repay the extra money, Mr Davies added new claims for utility bills, council tax and insurance, making a total of £9,057. This, he noted in his letter, was precisely the sum which had already been paid to him as “the balance remaining available to me in the ACA”.

The extra items included £1,079.81 for insurance, £172 for a fire extinguisher package, £423.13 for the annual maintenance of a burglar alarm system and £115 for having an Aga serviced.

Mr Davies said yesterday the mortgage error was an “honest mistake” and added: “I immediately corrected it as soon as I realised what had happened. There was no point in sending a cheque to the fees office and receiving payment a few days later for the same amount, since I had other legitimate expenses to claim for.”

Former minister Andrew Smith spent £35,000 on home makeover

Val Smith and Oxford East MP Andrew Smith with Gordon Brown

Andrew Smith, Labour MP for Oxford East, used the additional costs allowance (ACA) to claim for a new kitchen and bathroom as well as new windows, flooring, doors and hallway at his designated second home in Kennington, south London.

Although the work could only be carried out at the London home under Commons rules, receipts submitted to the fees office show that many of the purchases were made in Oxford, with the work carried out by Oxford-based builders. The MP claimed a total of £34,181.29 on repairs and renovations to the modest mid-terrace property between 2004, the year he resigned as work and pensions secretary, and 2008.

One claim, in February 2006, was for £2,364.91 and included the cost of a new dishwasher, oven, fridge, microwave, gas hob, and even a 50p carrier bag from Ikea.

Mr Smith bought the house in 1998 with his wife, Valerie, whom he employs with taxpayers’ money as his office manager and caseworker on a part-time basis.

He submitted a number of claims for work he said was done at his London home, although his constituency home was given as the delivery or invoice address.

In November 2004 Mr Smith claimed £1,533.38 for “materials for bathroom” under the ACA. Yet the delivery address on the invoice — for items including a lavatory and a washbasin — was his address in Oxford. Several other products claimed were bought from shops in Oxford.

In December 2004 he claimed £5,287 (of which £3,500 was paid by the fees office) for “modernisation to bathroom”. However, he used a company that is based in Oxford and the invoice was addressed to his home in the city.

He also claimed £100.32 for some replacement tiles, which were bought from Topps Tiles in Oxford, and £802.34 for curtains bought at a Debenhams in Oxford.

In June 2007 Mr Smith claimed £128.08 for “adjusting lock after key failed”. Yet the invoice from the locksmith states that the work at the London address consisted of “gaining entry” to the residence after a “lock out”.

Yesterday, Mr Smith said: “I returned to the property at midnight from my office at the Commons. I had my keys. One key would not turn the lock. The locksmith filed a bit off one of the keys and then it worked.”

On Dec 14, 2005, the fees office wrote to Mr Smith asking him to pay back £981.73 as he had been claiming life assurance, which is not allowed under Green Book rules. Mr Smith said the claim was a “genuine mistake”.

“The assurance policy was required by the mortgage, and in error I thought it was reclaimable, and in error the fees office paid it,” he said. “As soon as the mistake came to light, I repaid the money.”

Mr Smith also claimed for hundreds of pounds worth of calls from his home phone and fax in Oxford under the incidental expenses provision (IEP), which is used to cover office costs.

He said the bills were submitted for calls made from his home office, and were properly reclaimable as an office cost.

His wife is employed at his constituency office and is paid “less than £24,000” per annum. She is contracted and paid for 25 hours a week as an office manager and caseworker and uses the second home “only occasionally”.

“I have always tried to keep to the spirit and the letter of the rules,” Mr Smith said.

“My mortgage interest costs are much less than the mortgage or rent for many other MPs, but I have had to spend significant amounts on repairs.

“During the period covered by these claims, as well as repairs needed to the kitchen and bathroom, there were problems with the downstairs floor, and with some of the plumbing and the boiler needed replacing because it was unsafe, so quite a lot of repair work had to be done.

“I reduced [claims] where materials were of a higher standard than those they replaced. I haven’t claimed for things like televisions or music systems.

“All work and materials I have claimed for were used in London. When errors in my claims have come to light I have paid the money back.”

Mr Smith added that he had recently published his expenses on his own constituency website.

Since 2004 he has claimed a total of £73,944 under the ACA and a total of £89,262 under the IEP. He has claimed a total of £564,937 in expenses, including staffing and travel costs, in that period.

Claim for cost of bailiffs

Labour MP Sir Peter Soulsby who claimed for a bailiffs bill when he fell behind with his rent

Debt collectors were sent to the offices of Sir Peter Soulsby, where his wife Alison works for part of the week as his secretary, after he fell behind with his rent in October 2007.

The fees office agreed that the Labour MP for Leicester South should not be liable for the £472.59 bailiff’s bill and reimbursed him.

Sir Peter had arranged for the fees office to pay the £2,423 quarterly rent and service charge for his constituency office, close to Leicester’s city centre, direct to the landlord.

However, a request from Sir Peter’s office for the amount to be paid “went astray” and he slipped into arrears. He blamed the landlord because of a dispute over service charges.

A note on the letter by one of the fees office staff states: “OK to pay, charges do not appear to have been within the member’s control.”

Sir Peter also blamed the fees office. He said: “It was entirely the fees office’s fault that the bill for office rent had not been paid. They had failed to process the original bill – sent almost a month earlier for direct payment by them – or the resubmitted bill sent to them for payment nine days before the bailiffs arrived.”

Sir Peter, a former member of the Audit Commission, also fell behind on the business rates for his constituency office and was sent a final reminder by Leicester City Council – of which he used to be leader – before it was paid. Mrs Soulsby is paid £25,000 a year by the taxpayer to work as his secretary. Sir Peter said she spends Monday mornings at the Leicester office before travelling to London to work for him at Westminster. She returns to the Leicester office on Fridays.

While in London on parliamentary business, Sir Peter and his wife live in a luxury apartment situated in the former headquarters of MI6.

Sir Peter is reimbursed more than £2,000 a month in mortgage interest payments on the flat in the sought-after Perspective building, which enjoys stunning views of the London skyline. Sir Peter was elected as an MP in May 2005. He initially rented a flat in Kennington, south London, for £1473.33 a month. After his election, Sir Peter began furnishing the property, spending more than £1,150 over a two-week period.

In September 2006 Sir Peter bought the apartment in the Perspective building for £380,000 and designated this as his second home.

He was reimbursed £12,826 for moving costs including stamp duty, as well as his monthly mortgage interest payments of £2,057.33 – well above the limit of £1,205 now being proposed – and a quarterly service charge of £831.58 on the apartment.

Sir Peter said that his claims were “reasonable”, adding that he was one of only 27 MPs who voted against the Bill to block them from publishing their expenses by exempting the Commons from the Freedom of Information Act.

Tory claimed £10,000 for website

Angela Browning on the House of Commons Terrace

Angela Browning paid a political research company run by a former Conservative Party campaigner £9,635 in July 2007.

Mrs Browning also charged taxpayers more than £1,000 for the cost of installing two radiator covers in the lounge of her designated second home.

The bill was among claims of nearly £7,300 for the cost of soft furnishings and decorating at the London flat she shares with her husband, David, who she employs as her part-time secretary.

Mrs Browning’s seven-page website, which carries details of her constituency and parliamentary work, was designed by Parliamentary Liaison Services Ltd (PLS), run by Mark Fullbrook, the former head of campaigns at Conservative Central Office.

One London website designer with more than 10 years’ experience in the industry said a similar website should cost no more than £1,250 to set up and run. Philip Sweny, of Halpen Marketing, said: “It seems to be a very basic site.”

PLS claims to work as a “communications adviser” for up to 20 Conservative MPs, even though the Green Book, which lays out the rules for MPs, says there is a bar on “advice for individual Members on self promotion”.

Mrs Browning said she had followed guidance given to her by the fees office.

“The contract for the website is to maintain and run it right up until the next election,” she said. “I didn’t get a second quote because I had dealt with the company before. That was the only claim I have ever made on the communications allowance.” Mr Fullbrook insisted that he had provided a good service. He said the £9,635 fee was for two-and-a-half years’ service, adding: “We are a commercial company and we think the price was reasonable for the quality service we provided.

“MPs’ websites are governed by special rules and we try to run it by those rules. Anybody can set up and run a website, but Angela Browning needed it to be done by people who understood the rules that apply to MPs, and we were able to provide that service.”

Mr Fullbrook said his company also stayed within the Green Book rules on “self-promotion”.

Mrs Browning, the member for Tiverton and Honiton and a junior agriculture minister in John Major’s government, was reimbursed £1,104 for the cost of the two white “Sandringham-style” radiator covers fitted in the lounge of her Pimlico flat in January 2006.

Mrs Browning said she installed the covers because one of them was very close to the door and she kept knocking her leg against it. “It was very hot,” she said. “There were two in the same room so it’s difficult to have one covered and not the other.”

In March, 2006, Mrs Browning was reimbursed for the £715 cost of a new carpet for the master bedroom of her second home.

In November that year, she also hired a company to redecorate her kitchen and fit new worktops and a sink at a cost of £2,714.

Six months later, Mrs Browning claimed £151 for new curtains and £400 for four made-to-measure pelmets.

In July, 2007, she again undertook some decorating, this time hiring the same company to paint her hall at a cost of £1,045.75.

In December, 2007, Mrs Browning – who had stopped claiming for the cost of her second home when the interest-only mortgage payments of £641 came to an end six months earlier – sold the property for £493,000 and moved to rented accommodation half a mile away.

Mrs Browning claimed £1,646 a month for rent at her new second home until July last year, when the files show she planned to stay in hotels until moving to a new flat last September.

“I have tried very hard to work within the spirit of the rules,” she said. “Most of the examples you have given were genuine replacements of things that were well past their sell-by date. For the kitchen, I repainted the units rather than buying new ones and only replaced the worktops because they were rotten.

“My painting bills were high but I had 18ft ceilings in a listed building.”

Tory Christopher Chope’s £881 bill for repairing sofa

Conservative MP Christopher Chope who claimed for the repair of a sofa

Christopher Chope, who employs his wife Christine as his secretary, transported the sofa from his second home in London to a tradesman near his main residence in his constituency of Christchurch, Dorset.

Mr Chope also used his additional costs allowance (ACA) to fund the £10,377 repair of the roof of the 200-year-old London house that he jointly owns with his wife. He kitted out the property with a bathroom costing more than £2,600 to buy and install – again on the taxpayer.

In March last year the MP submitted the bill for £881.25 to strip down and recover the Chesterfield sofa. The Dorset craftsman sent the invoice to Mr Chope’s constituency home even though he claimed the cost for his second home.

Mr Chope said last night that he and his wife had loaded the Chesterfield into their Volvo estate and taken it from London to Christchurch where the local craftsman offered better “value for money” and a “better job”.

He said: “We had a Chesterfield which was unserviceable and what were we to do? Either we get rid of it, or we do something about it.” The sofa was re-covered in the original calico and not a new covering, the MP added.

He said the roof and bathroom claims were for essential repair work.

Wreath laid at war memorial claimed on MP’s expenses

Labour MP Tom Levitt who claimed for the cost of a wreath for a Remembrance event

Tom Levitt, the Labour MP for High Peak, submitted the expenses claim on Nov 30, 2006, a few weeks after the annual Remembrance events.

However, it was rejected by the fees office, which told him it was not allowed under the rules. Yesterday, Mr Levitt, who employs his wife Teresa as his parliamentary assistant, said the claim for the wreath had been made in error and blamed a member of his staff.

“The fees office were quite right to reject it,” he said. “By the time I spotted the error, the claim had been submitted and I did not expect it to be paid. I have paid for two wreaths each year for 12 years from my own money and this is the only time this error has been made.”

Mr Levitt, a former Parliamentary Private Secretary to Hilary Benn, the then Secretary of State for International Development, also claimed for thousands of pounds of renovation work on the London home. He first hired a company of Polish builders in January 2007, two years after buying a £275,000 two-bedroom maisonette, in south London.

The former teacher, who once served on the Standards and Privileges Committee – responsible for monitoring MPs’ conduct – had nominated the property as his second home, allowing him to claim his additional costs allowance on it, while retaining his home in Buxton, Derbyshire, as his main residence.

He hired the company to replace the upstairs carpets with wood laminate flooring and solid oak skirting boards. The builders also fitted a lavatory and cistern and carried out some general decoration.

Mr Levitt was so taken with their work that he decided to hire them to carry out similar work in the downstairs lounge and hall. Here they once again removed carpets and replaced them with laminate flooring and put in skirting boards, as well as repairing window frames, moving an electric socket and tidying up wiring.

However Mr Levitt’s claim for £5,281 to cover the cost of the work appears to have alarmed the fees office, which rang him for an explanation.

In a letter, Mr Levitt told the fees office that his flat appeared not to have been redecorated since it was built in the 1970s and required significant renovation. He praised the Poles’ work, and the fees office authorised payment of the bill.

In January last year, Mr Levitt decided to carry out further work and fitted a new bathroom, at a cost of £8,013.77.

This time the fees office refused to pay the full amount, pointing out in a letter to Mr Levitt that the “John Lewis list”, which sets a limit on the amount MPs can be reimbursed for household items, specifies £6,335 as the maximum amount allowed for the installation of a bathroom.

It also warned the MP that he might face public criticism in future should such claims be exposed.

Mr Levitt said yesterday: “I expected the 'John Lewis’ maximum to be applied and it was. The bathroom is small and the fittings probably as old as the flat.

“The replacement was 'like for like’ with the only 'enhancement’ being a bathroom cupboard with a shaving mirror above the sink – there was not one there before. And labour costs in London are not cheap.”

Following the move, Mr Levitt entered into a correspondence with the fees office in which he tried to explain the complicated joint mortgage arrangements on his Buxton constituency home and his London property. Mr Levitt explained that he claimed a proportion of the joint mortgage to cover the interest payments on his second home.

However, examination of his previous mortgage interest payments by the fees office showed that he had over-claimed by £6,000, which he duly returned.

When the Telegraph first began its disclosures over MPs’ expenses, he accused it of “conniving with criminals in gutter journalism”.

Yesterday he said: “As a former member of the Standards and Privileges Committee, my conscience is clear.”

Labour backbencher 'too busy' to shop around

Labour MP Bob Laxton who was 'too busy' to shop around

In October, 2005, Bob Laxton, the Labour MP for Derby North, spent £1,049 on the set and accessories, which he wrote on the claim form was a “Panasonic flat screen TV”. He said last night he had chosen the model because it would fit in his car easily. The claim was reduced to £750 by the Commons’ fees office.

The following March, he claimed £1,456 for the bed and £478 for bed linen and a food mixer, which was paid in full. The purchases were for his designated second home in Lambeth, south London, which he shares with his wife, Gail, who works for him as his office manager. Mr Laxton said: “When I bought this place in London I furnished it with stuff from home, hired a van and drove it down – three-piece suites and other bits. I think when I brought it down I knackered the other bed, or the mattress... that was kaput.

“I got a [new] bed. I didn’t really particularly have the time to run around and get deals on a TV or beds. I bought the TV across the road from my office in the centre of Derby and just chucked it in the back of my car. I thought 'that will be fine, that will do the job’. I’m too busy to chase around getting quotes.

“I think probably one of the reasons why I bought it was the fact that physically it was easier to lump in the back of my car. It’s not a flat screen as such, but it is not one of those great big, heavy things.

“I think the prices of TVs have absolutely crashed. You can get a digital TV better than the one I’ve got in London for probably half the price.”

He said he may have to soon replace the Panasonic because it was not digital, although suggested he would be able to buy a cheaper one.

“It’s probably at some stage going to be changed when digital switchover happens,” he said.

He refused to say how much his wife was paid for managing his Derby and London offices, but said that she earned less than he did.

New MP sought four beds for a one-bedroom London flat

Angela C Smith MP with her husband Steve

Among the purchases made by Angela Smith, the Labour MP for Sheffield Hillsborough, were four beds for her one-bedroom London flat.

In her first year in Parliament, Miss Smith, whose husband Steve Wilson works for her as a researcher, claimed £7,800 under the additional costs allowance (ACA).

This paid for a king-size bed, two futons, bedding, kitchen utensils, carpets, curtains and electrical equipment including a blender and a steamer, as well as solicitors’ fees and stamp duty.

The following year she bought a £950 sofa bed and a “Lucia” chair worth £550 because she said the two futons purchased the year before had broken.

Her office expense claims, under the incidental expenses provision (IEP), during her first year in Parliament included an Olympus digital camera for £99.99.

The following year, she also claimed £536 for an Olympus E500, described by the manufacturer as “a creative photographer’s dream”.

She said the “original, cheaper camera was not up to the task” while the more expensive one enabled newspaper-quality pictures to be taken of her visiting “various groups and schools in my constituency”.

Her first three years saw Miss Smith, who is the parliamentary private secretary to Yvette Cooper, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, claim a total of £66,500 under the ACA scheme for second homes – including mortgage interest payments for her flat near Westminster of up to £1,269 a month – and £54,000 under the IEP scheme for office supplies.

Miss Smith said: “The principle of supporting MPs to set up a London base is an important one. You will note from my website that I did not claim for home contents of any kind in 2008-09 and I never will again. I have received support to set up a London base and am grateful for that, but that’s it. Future replacement costs will be borne by myself.”

MP who employs his wife claimed the £210 cost of her spectacles

Labour MP Michael Clapham who claimed on expenses for his wife's spectacles

The fees office reduced the payout to £50, telling him: “Your claim for spectacles for Yvonne Clapham has been reduced to £50 as this is the maximum sum which is allowable for spectacles under this allowance.”

The former miner also claimed £19.97 on the office budget - or incidental expenditure provision (IEP) - for an iron from Asda and £64.93 for a dinner service, plates and mugs from Next in the Meadowhall shopping centre near Rotherham. While the crockery claim was rejected by Commons officials, the household appliance was approved.

The MP for Barnsley West and Penistone also took advantage of the generous thresholds for sundry payments on his second home additional costs allowance (ACA) by claiming £20,860 for cleaning and groceries over five years at his south London home without having to submit a single receipt.

MPs are entitled to claim up to £250 for cleaning and £400 for food without submitting receipts. By claiming under those amounts, Mr Clapham was able to recoup £5,266 from cleaning and £15,594 for groceries at his London flat between 2004-05 and 2007-08 without providing any receipts.

He also claimed £1,500 on the ACA for replacing flagstones in the backyard of the London property, £80 for re-cording sash windows, £892 of self-assembly bedroom furniture from MFI, £766 for a television bench, bookcases and shelving from Ikea, £299 for the deposit on a new fire, £120 for towels, a bath mat, a glass trinket and six white wine glasses from Ikea.

In March 2006, he was given permission by Commons officials to claim the £690 fee for rearranging the mortgage on the couple’s London flat, bought for £250,000 in 2002, because it meant lower repayments and hence lower claims of approximately £650 a month compared with £900.

He has already announced he is to stand down at the next election, at which point he will receive a further £54,403 from the taxpayer as a Resettlement Grant, which is calculated at 84 per cent of an MP’s salary.

He did not return calls yesterday. Mrs Clapham said she was unable to find her husband for comment and that he would not be able to answer any questions while Parliament was in recess. “He doesn’t have the documents in front of him,” she said.

Mr Clapham’s second home ACA claims totalled £76,492 for the four years between 2004-05 and 2007-08. He has been among the lowest overall claimants for office expenses, recouping £46,514 from the taxpayer over the same period.