Tory MPs warned over expenses
Updated on 13 October 2009
As MPs' anger grows over retrospective expenses payment requests, Gordon Brown hosts a cabinet meeting in Downing Street.
His ruling comes despite growing anger from some Members of Parliament about the repayment notices that followed an audit of expenses by Sir Thomas Legg.
Mr Cameron said "everyone" had to abide by the eventual decision made in the audit of expenses.
He said: "In the end, if people are asked to pay back money and if the authorities determine that money should be paid back and they don't pay it back, in my view, they can't stand as Conservative MPs, that is the minimum point.
"One point is important, this is a process, you get a letter, in the letter it says 'this is provisional' and you have to reply to the letter and there will be some issues of determination about whether it is correctly described and all the rest of it.
"But at the end of the process, MPs have to pay back the money they are asked to by the authorities.
"To me that is the least we can do to try and sort out these problems of the past before going on to the future."
The Prime Minister has agreed to pay back more than £12,000 of excessive expenses claims, but other MPs are reluctant to follow his lead.
Political editor Gary Gibbon explains the new rules
"Sir Thomas Legg seems to have decided in particular on cleaning and gardening - those are two areas which the original House of Commons authorities were particularly lax in keeping an eye on.
"The other areas he is taking a particular look at are where documentation is not strong enough to support mortgage claims and where there is conflicting claims. But in particular on cleaning he's saying MP's cannot claim - or could not as this is all retrospective - for more than £2,000 a year."
Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe told Channel 4 News she thought Sir Thomas Legg had "exceeded his remit".
"I think he's done it for the best possible reasons but I think he has exceeded his remit and what he's done is create a situation which he may not have thoroughly thought through, whereby what is being said to MPs is even if you were fastidiously moral about every last thing you claimed for yet because we've changed the rules here is a bill.
"If any other employer did that he'd be up before a tribunal."
