Claimed for pink laptop on MPs' expenses

In 2007-8 Mr Yeo claimed a total of £153,358 in expenses, including travel, home, office and staffing costs. In the same year, he turned up for only 42 per cent of votes

House of Commons officials prevaricated over querying the £905.95 purchase for the Sony Vaio laptop by Tim Yeo on 29 November 2007 – eventually deciding against doing so because they could not see a "basis" for the query.

Mr Yeo, the MP for South Suffolk, put the bill for the item through under the Incidental Expenses Provision (IEP) which covers MPs' office costs.

My Yeo claimed for a £905.95 laptop in the weeks before Christmas

Marginal notes on the expenses documents by Fees Office staff first suggest: "Query pink laptop?" but another addition states: "No basis to question member etc."

In 2007-8 Mr Yeo claimed a total of £153,358 in expenses, including travel, home, office and staffing costs. In the same year, he turned up for only 42 per cent of votes and spoke in four debates and asked 13 parliamentary questions.

Mr Yeo, the environment minister in John Major's government, claimed the maximum possible amount under the Additional Cost Allowance (ACA) between 2004 and 2008 on his designated second home, a flat in a sought-after Thames-side tower block near Westminster.

The bulk of his claims under the ACA went on mortgage interest payments and service charges for the property but he also charged the taxpayer £1,790.20 on dry cleaning between 2004 and 2006.

On the forms MPs use to claim the ACA there is a section marked "cleaning" – but this is almost always used to claim household cleaning costs.

In January 2008 Mr Yeo used his office costs allowance to claim for £3,000 worth of shelving to be installed at his London flat.

He was told by the Fees Office there was "no record" of an office at the property and advised that the claim should be made under the ACA instead, but there is no evidence of his having done so.

September 2006 saw him claim – successfully – under his office costs allowance for £135 of "repairs" at a central London shop selling pens.

Two months later he tried to claim public funds for the purchase of Christmas cards, but was told this was not allowed under Commons rules.

In at least two years between 2004 and 2008 Mr Yeo tried to claim more under the ACA than the balance remaining on the allowance, which runs over the course of a financial year, and saw his claims cut by the Fees Office.

On his IEP he claimed the cost of utility bills relating to four separate properties – his London flat, his constituency home in Suffolk, and two properties in Sandwich, Kent.

Mr Yeo resigned as a minister in 1993 – one of string of victims of the "Back to Basics" fiasco which claimed scalps in Mr Major's government.

He was a shadow cabinet minister under Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard, at one staging holding the twin portfolios of education and health.

He left the Tory front bench after the 2005 general election and was seen by some as a possible leadership contender. However, he ruled himself out by backing Kenneth Clarke in the contest which saw David Cameron elected.

He is currently chairman of the all-party environmental audit committee.

Mr Yeo last night told The Sunday Telegraph that he had "no comment" to make about his dry cleaning bills.

He said his claim for £3,000 shelving was "correctly paid" under the IEP at his London home, where he had converted a bedroom for use as an office.

Regarding his pink laptop the MP said: "A laptop is a laptop whatever colour it is. This is a trivial point."

He said he had claimed the cost of repairing a pen because it was "one of a pair of fountain pens I have had since I entered parliament - and I always use it to sign letters".

The two Sandwich addresses for which he had claimed utility bills were each holiday homes - one former and one current - in which he carried out parliamentary work.

On his "value for money" he said: "I chair public weekly meetings of the environmental audit committee and this is more onerous than speaking in the House."