Which MPs are repaying expenses?
Updated on 21 October 2009
More details emerge of which MPs have been asked to repay expenses or provide more information to independent reviewer Sir Thomas Legg.
Sir Thomas is treating any claim over £2,000 a year for cleaning and £1,000 for gardening as excessive and demanding any sums above that level should be returned. MPs have three weeks to respond to his letters.
View the rules behind Sir Thomas's audit in full here.
Gordon Brown has been asked for the largest repayment of any of the main party leaders, £12,415.
This comprised £10,716.60 in relation to cleaning and £302.50 for gardening in the period 2004/05 to 2008/09, as well as a £1,396 bill for painting and decorating that was inadvertently submitted twice in 2006.
Conservative leader David Cameron said he had been asked for "one particular mortgage statement, which of course I will provide" and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has been asked to repay £910 in gardening claims for his second home.
Channel 4 News online asked the three main parties this morning whether they would be releasing any more details on expenses repayments by their MPs, or the letters received by Thomas Legg.
A Labour party spokesperson said it had no plans to publish anything, and the Lib Dems said there had been some confusion over the issue and it was a matter for individual MPs to release details.
A Conservative party spokesperson said they were currently in the process of collating information, but had no plans at present to release anything.
Which Labour MPs are repaying?
Chancellor Alistair Darling is to repay £554 he claimed towards a chest of drawers to furnish his second home.
He claimed £1,104 for the total cost of the furniture, despite there being a limit of £550 for such items.
Sir Thomas has also asked for proof of the Chancellor's monthly interest payments on the mortgage for his second home.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is paying back £800 after being told by Sir Thomas that his claim for tree surgery work in the garden of his constituency home in 2004, when he was MP for Hartlepool, was excessive.
Lord Mandelson made the claim shortly before quitting Parliament in 2004 after branches from a tree in his Hartlepool home grew over neighbours' property.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw revealed that he had been asked to repay £600 after it emerged that an error had led to him being paid the same money twice in 2004.
Mr Straw said: "I have already written the cheque and it is in the post."
Foreign Secretary David Miliband has agreed to repay £434 "following a bureaucratic error over a mortgage interest payment back in 2004".
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has been told he has nothing to repay, a spokeswoman said. His junior minister David Kidney has supplied "further information regarding rental agreements" which the review requested.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls and MP Yvette Cooper who are married, are to repay £13.50 each because of a "miscalculation" of interest claims on their joint mortgage in 2006/07. Ms Cooper will also meet a request to provide additional mortgage documentation for 2004/05.
Labour former minister Malcolm Wicks, who is now the prime minister's special representative on international energy issues, was also given a clean bill of health.
Communities minister Shahid Malik said his expenses had been given the all-clear by Sir Thomas.
Cabinet Office minister Liam Byrne is to repay 31,860 for a phone bill which was submitted on the wrong claim for, and for letting agency chages.
The Dewsbury MP stepped aside from his ministerial job in May while an allegation that he enjoyed a subsidised rent on his constituency home was investigated by Mr Brown's adviser on the ministerial code, Sir Philip Mawer. Sir Philip later cleared Mr Malik and he returned to his ministerial post.
Mr Malik said today Sir Thomas had written to him yesterday saying he had found no allowances claims that needed further investigation or repayment.
Labour MP Michael Clapham was asked to reply £540 in mortgage interest. He queried the amount and Sir Thomas has written him a letter saying no further action is required, so he will not have to repay it.
John Mann, who has led calls for a complete overhaul of expenses, will not have to repay £110, and in his case Sir Thomas has blamed a clerical error.
Which Conservative MPs are repaying?
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has also been asked by Sir Thomas to provide copies of his mortgage interest statements.
Shadow business secretary Ken Clarke has been asked to pay back £4,733 he claimed in parliamentary expenses for gardening and cleaning. Sir Thomas Legg has since reduced this sum to £1,300 and apologised to the Conservative frontbencher.
Other shadow cabinet members facing hefty repayment demands include chief whip Patrick McLoughlin, who has been asked to return £4,058.24 which he claimed for cleaning and his mortgage.
Conservative backbencher Douglas Hogg, who repaid £2,200, announced he was standing down as MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham at the election after being widely criticised over claims apparently including the cost of clearing a moat at his second home, said Sir Thomas had not requested any further repayment.
"Like all MPs I have received a letter from Sir Thomas Legg. He has not suggested any repayment," said Mr Hogg in a statement.
"He has asked for more information and I am happy to respond. Full details of all my claims have always been furnished to and approved by the Fees Office and the largest items were approved in advance."
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley has been asked for a further £1,782.22, taking his total repayment bill to £4,423.92.
Veteran Conservative backbencher Sir Patrick Cormack told Today that Sir Thomas had suggested he pay back "a very, very modest sum", but declined to say exactly how much.
He stressed that at this stage no demands for repayment were being made, as MPs had the opportunity to reply to Sir Thomas to justify their claims.
Tory MP Nadine Dorries (Mid Beds) has been asked to repay £241 for a BT bill claimed in 2006. She disputed she had been paid the amount twice.
Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham) has been asked to repay £1,184.23 in mortgage payments.
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague (Richmond) has been asked to repay £642.78 in respect of a mortgage ovrpayment.
Oliver Letwin (West Dorset) has been asked to repay £613.70 claimed for service and maintenance, including £458.70 claimed for a burst water tank.
North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has been asked to repay £911.21 claimed for repairs, insurance security and mortgage.
Conservative party chairman and shadow communities secretary Eric Pickles (Brentwood and Ongar) has been asked to repay £300 claimed for cleaning.
Caroline Spelman (Meriden), shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, has been asked to repay £2,400 claimed in office costs.
Sir George Young (North West Hampshire) has been asked to repay £104,69 claimed for utilities.
Conservative member for Tunbridge Wells Greg Clarke has been asked to provide more information about his claims. The same applies to Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell), Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield), Jeremy Hunt (South West Surrey), Francis Maude (Horsham) and David Willetts (Havant).
Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh, has been told he faces no further questions and has nothing to repay. The same applies to Michael Gove (Surrey Heath), Phlip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge), Theresa May (Maidenhead), and Grant Shapps (Welwyn Hatfield).
What are other MPs repaying?
Speaker John Bercow said that Sir Thomas had not asked him to pay back any money, but had asked for additional documentation about his mortgage.
"Were anything to emerge from that paperwork which led to Sir Thomas requesting a repayment, I would declare the sum of money and settle the account immediately," he said.
Derek Conway, the now-independent MP expelled from the Conservative party after being found guilty of overpaying his two sons from the public purse faces no further action.
SNP leader Alex Salmond is repaying £710.88 in removal costs between London and Aberdeenshire when he gave up his rented flat in 2007, his party said.
Mr Salmond, who is First Minister of Scotland and MSP for Banff and Buchan, is also supplying further information about £2,610 in hotel costs incurred while his rented London flat was unfurnished, the party said.
Angus Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader and MP for Moray, is repaying £1,217 for a sofa bed and DVD recorder, and is also to provide rental and mortgage statements requested.
Stewart Hosie, SNP MP for Dundee East, is repaying £379 for hotel costs claimed in February 2009 when his flat flooded and was uninhabitable, and which he should have reclaimed from his insurance.
Angus MacNeil, SNP MP for the Western Isles, is repaying a partial council tax bill of £133 for 2007-08. The party said Mr MacNeil was also seeking "clarification" from Sir Thomas about unavoidable hotel stays in Glasgow, incurred en route to his Island constituency, which had previously been agreed with Commons authorities.
Pete Wishart, SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, has been asked to repay £1,632 in respect of a duplicate claim for flat rental and a utility bill.
Mike Weir, SNP MP Angus, has not been asked for any repayment. He has been asked to provide copies of the rental agreement for the flat he rents.
Gregory Campbell, DUP (East Londonderry), is handing back £2,656 in relation to an accommodation cost claim, a service change which was overpaid, and two overpayments of ground rent.
Jeffrey Donaldson, DUP (Lagan Valley), is handing back £1,964 in relation to accommodation costs, mobile phone charges and a service charge.
William McCrea, DUP (South Antrim), said he would be handing back £5,329 for furniture, duplicated service charges and a TV licence.
Ian Paisley, DUP (North Antrim), is giving back £1,181 which he said related to a payment made by the Fees Office during dissolution.
Peter Robinson, DUP (Belfast East), has been asked to repay £299 mortgage interest.
Iris Robinson, DUP (Strangford), is handing back £2,274 relating to furniture and a service charge.
David Simpson, DUP (Upper Bann), is repaying a £400 food claim which he believed was the same amount he had already repaid and he was questioning the accuracy of Sir Thomas's recommendation.
Lady Sylvia Hermon, Ulster Unionist (North Down), has been asked to repay £1,365 after Sir Thomas queried rent on a London flat which was paid twice in the same month by the Fees Office.
Alasdair McDonnell, SDLP MP for South Belfast, received a letter from Sir Thomas and was not asked to repay anything.
