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.