Cash secrets of MPs who tried to stop you seeing their expenses

David Maclean, David Clelland, Julian Lewis and Fraser Kemp

An investigation has established that backers of a Bill two years ago which aimed to exempt Parliament from the full force of the Freedom of Information Act have benefited from thousands of pounds paid under the second home expenses system.

Examples ranged from a former government whip who “bought out” his partner from her share of a London flat at a cost to the taxpayer of thousands of pounds, to a Tory grandee who spent thousands of pounds of public funds on his country estate before selling it.

A shadow minister claimed a £7,000 bedroom suite and a £2,200 television and “flipped” his second home, while a Labour election co-ordinator bought 16 bedsheets within the space of two months for a one-bedroom flat.

The MPs, who all backed the 2007 Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill introduced by David Maclean, the former Conservative chief whip, will face questions over their use of expenses and will come under pressure to return money.

Supporters of Mr Maclean’s Bill said they were acting to protect the confidentiality of constituents. Yet MPs opposing the Bill told the Commons repeatedly that its main impact would be to keep expenses secret.

The latest disclosures came as the fallout from the MPs’ expenses scandal showed no sign of letting up. David Chaytor, a backbench MP, was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party after he admitted he had claimed nearly £13,000 for the mortgage on a London flat after it was paid off.

The Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service are due to meet this week to decide whether to start a criminal inquiry following the Telegraph’s investigation into the misuse of the expenses system by MPs from all sides of the House of Commons.

Two new opinion polls confirmed the damage being sustained by both main parties over the expenses scandal.

Labour was neck and neck with the UK Independence Party in a BPIX poll for the Mail on Sunday as voters looked set to punish mainstream parties over the expenses scandal at the ballot box next month.

More than a third of voters (38 per cent) now believe Gordon Brown should call a snap election over the scandal.

A second poll, by ComRes for the Independent on Sunday, also showed a record low for Labour.

A five point slump for each since last month left Labour on 21 per cent - just three points ahead of the Liberal Democrats who were unchanged at 18 per cent - with the Tories on 40 per cent.

The latest disclosures include:

- David Maclean, who introduced the 2007 Bill, spent more than £20,000 doing up his farmhouse under the Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) before selling it for £750,000.

He was entitled to the money because the property was designated as his “second home” with the Commons authorities, yet Mr Maclean did not pay capital gains tax on the sale because the taxman accepted it was his main home.

- David Clelland, the Labour MP, “bought out” his partner’s share of a joint mortgage on a flat in London in a deal which cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds plus legal fees. After the deal, which was approved by the Commons fees office, his taxpayer-funded mortgage interest payments increased by almost £200 a month.

Mr Clelland, who cited the “increasingly bureaucratic” nature of the expenses system and fears of “press intrusion” as reasons for ending the joint mortgage, also submitted a claim including 36p for fuses.

- Fraser Kemp, a former government whip and one of Labour’s key election strategists, made repeat purchases of household items within weeks of each other for his one-bedroom flat.

He bought 16 sheets within seven weeks and tried to claim for a £1,699 television only for the fees office to turn the claim down.

A year earlier he had successfully claimed for a £599 television. Last night he described some of his purchases – including the bed linen – as an “error” and offered to make repayments.

- Julian Lewis, the shadow defence minister and one of the most outspoken opponents of the disclosure of MPs’ personal details, asked

if he could claim £6,000 expenses for a wooden floor with acoustic underlay but was told by officials in the fees office that this “could be seen as extravagant”. However, he was permitted to claim £4,870 to upgrade the London flat, as well as £352.20 in legal fees for settling a dispute over unpaid service charges. Mr Lewis also claimed £119 for a wall-mounted trouser press and £5 for a “sweater tidy”. Last night he described the ACA as an “absolutely rotten system”.

- David Ruffley, the shadow Home Office minister, “flipped” his second home from a London flat to his Bury St Edmunds constituency before spending thousands of pounds on furniture and fittings. He successfully claimed for a £1,674 sofa – but was refused the full amount when he claimed for a £2,175 46-inch Sony widescreen HD television from Harrods. An attempt to claim £6,765 for the purchase of several bedroom items was reduced by £4,748.

Not all of the 98 MPs who supported Mr Maclean’s Bill in 2007 had questionable expenses. Some submitted low or zero claims including Labour’s Martin Salter and Ann Widdecombe, the Conservative MP.

The latest disclosures came as Gordon Brown and David Cameron faced increasing pressure to do more to address the scale of the abuse of the expenses system.

Since the Telegraph investigation began nine days ago, one minister has stepped down from his post, two Labour MPs have been suspended from the parliamentary party, while a parliamentary aide to the Conservative leader has also resigned his role.

Last night the Prime Minister pledged to take action against ministers who abuse the expenses system and claimed he was “appalled and angered” by the disclosures.

“The bottom line is that any MP who is found to have defied the rules will not be serving in my government,” Mr Brown said.

“I want to assure every citizen of my commitment to a complete clean-up of the system — that wherever and whenever immediate disciplinary action is required I will take it.” The position of Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker, remains under threat. A “no confidence” motion could to be tabled against him this week. In a leaked letter to Tory candidates campaigning in next month’s European elections, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said the Opposition backed “the office of the Speaker,” suggesting that the Tory leadership was losing patience with Mr Martin personally.

Officially, both Mr Brown and Mr Cameron back him – although a growing number of MPs favour his early removal on the grounds that he has mishandled the expenses affair.

Fraser Kemp and the 'Mistakes' over sheets and DVDs on MP's expenses

Fraser Kemp admitted that he should not have claimed for two DVD players one month after the other, and that claims for 16 sheets in the space of seven weeks for his one-bedroom flat were a mistake.

He said he would be repaying the money after The Sunday Telegraph asked him about the purchases.

The Labour MP also claimed for two flat-screen televisions exactly a year apart. He tried to claim one of them for £1,699 but the fees office turned it down. Rather than pay for the television himself, Mr Kemp took it back to the store and got a refund.

Mr Kemp, 50, spoke in support of David Maclean’s Bill in 2007 to exempt Parliament from the Freedom of Information Act – a move which would have ensured that his expenses details remained secret.

The former Labour whip, who has played a key role in the party’s election strategies for more than 10 years, put through receipts for goods which appeared to double up several times.

In May 2004, while living in a small flat designated as his second home in Pimlico near the House of Commons, he put through a claim for £47.94 for six sheets.

A month later, he bought six more sheets, seven pillowcases and eight throws for £141.77.

Three weeks after that, he bought four more sheets for £45.72.

He claimed £89.97 for a DVD player in April 2004, then the following month bought another for £69.99 and claimed that back.

Although his London flat was designated as his second home, Mr Kemp bought some of the goods for it from stores near his Houghton and Washington East constituency.

An upright Whirlpool freezer and separate fridge costing £279.48 were bought in Iceland in Washington, Tyne and Wear, in December 2004. A DVD player, together with a video recorder and £599 flat-screen television, came from Comet in Sunderland in April 2004.

Mr Kemp tried to claim for a second television, a Samsung with a plasma screen costing £1,699, in April 2005. When the fees office wrote to him to advise that it could only pay up to £750 for a television, Mr Kemp took the item back to Currys on the Old Kent Road in London.

He also charged the taxpayer £105.75 for an engineer to attend to his washing machine when he could not figure out how to operate it. An invoice from F&M Services in May 2005 records that the customer reported that “the selector wheel is not clicking round to drain”.

After examining the appliance, the engineer writes: “Machine set on rinse hold. Advised customer.”

Mr Kemp, who is standing down at the next election, seems to have profited from the sale of his flat after claiming legal fees of £1,532 back from the taxpayer.

He sold the property for £230,000 in December 2005, five years after buying it for an estimated £110,000. Mr Kemp then bought an apartment for £475,000 and his mortgage claims increased by more than 50 per cent, from £600 to £1,054 a month.

He had to be reminded by the parliamentary fees office in April 2005, a month before the general election, that he could not claim for property service charges and rates for the whole year as he had not been re-elected yet. Last night, Mr Kemp said: “Bed linen and a second DVD player was an error for which I apologise and will pay back.

“The second television was purchased in advance of moving to a new flat. The fridge and television were both for use in my London flat. There was a problem with the washing machine. But I am happy to reimburse.”

Asked whether he had paid capital gains tax on the sale of his second home, the MP said: “I’ll seek advice from HMRC to ensure appropriate liabilities have been met.”