MPs' expenses: what they claimed (part 4)
Updated on 18 May 2009
The full list of what MPs claimed for on their expenses, as revealed to date by the Daily Telegraph.
- Labour claims
- Labour claims (cont.)
- Conservative claims
- Conservative claims (cont.)
- Liberal Democrat claims
- Sinn Fein claims
- Democratic Unionist Party claims
- Scottish National Party (SNP) claims
- Other MP claims
Click here for the full Daily Telegraph reports on each MP investigated.
Conservative claims (continued):
Peter Luff:
The Conservative MP for Mid-Worcestershire spent £17,000 of taxpayers' money on furniture and other household items over a four-year period. They included three lavatory seats, three food mixers, two microwaves, four beds, five tables, two ironing boards, three kettles and 10 sets of bed linen.
He twice claimed for china dinner services, buying a £625 set in 2005 for his flat, before purchasing another for £367 less than three years later.
In the months before switching his designated second home from Worcester to London, he charged more than £5,000 for decorating and repairs, including the cost of having his Aga stove fixed, according to records seen by the paper.
He reportedly submitted receipts for furniture or decorating almost every month over the four-year period, some of which were challenged by the Fees Office. Mr Luff said he was ready to repay any claims identified as unreasonable by the scrutiny panel set up by Conservative leader David Cameron.
Keith Simpson:
The Mid Norfolk MP has spent almost £200 on light bulbs for his rented flat near Westminster over the past four years, it was reported.
Sir George Young:
The Conservative MP and Old Etonian put a total of £127,159 in second home expenses on his London flat between 2001 and 2008, claiming the maximum allowance on the property over the past two years, the paper said.
His expenditure included £699 on a washer-dryer and £449 on a dishwasher - both claims were reduced by the Fees Office. Sir George also failed to claim a council tax discount to which he was entitled, instead charging the taxpayer for the full amount.
John Bercow:
Mr Bercow, another potential successor to the Speaker's chair, "flipped" his second home from his constituency to a £540,000 flat in London and then claimed the maximum allowable amount for it.
The MP for Buckingham is to pay over £6,500 to HM Revenue & Customs after he confirmed that he had not paid capital gains tax when he sold two properties in 2003.
Anne Main:
The Tory MP for St Albans claimed a 10 per cent second home discount on her council tax for a flat where her daughter was living rent-free, the paper said. This discount can only be claimed if there is no full-time occupant of the property.
Mrs Main also charged the taxpayer £1,095.68 a month in mortgage interest payments for the flat, along with service charges, utility bills and furnishing costs. Her principal residence is 25 miles away in Beaconsfield, Bucks, and just six miles further away from Westminster than the St Albans flat.
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David Lidington:
The Tory MP for Aylesbury put nearly £1,300 for dry-cleaning on his second home expenses and claimed for toothpaste, shower gel, body spray and vitamin supplements. Mr Lidington even sent his bath mat and towel to the cleaners, it was reported.
Under expenses rules MPs are not allowed to claim for toiletries, but two Boots receipts totalling £51.09 submitted by Mr Lidington in May 2006 were accepted.
Bernard Jenkin:
The former Conservative Party deputy chairman claimed £50,000 for renting his sister-in-law's farmhouse which is across the road from a property part-owned by his wife. Mr Jenkin, the North Essex MP, also faces questions over the amount of money he gave to his wife's sister for staying in the house, which does not have a mortgage on it, the paper said.
Mike Penning:
The former Grenadier Guard who once said the Army fed its dogs better than its soldiers claimed for a bowl for his own four-legged friend. Mr Penning, the shadow health minister, put a £2.99 stainless steel dog bowl on his second home expenses. The Hemel Hempstead MP told the Telegraph: "This was claimed for mistakenly, for which I apologise sincerely and will pay back."
Jonathan Djanogly:
The multi-millionaire shadow business minister claimed nearly £5,000 on his taxpayer-funded expenses to install automatic gates at his home. He also spent £13,962 on cleaning and £12,951 for gardening from his second home allowance.
Mr Djanogly has now agreed to repay £25,000 of the £77,104 he has apparently spent maintaining the property out of his Commons expenses.
The wooden gates, which he can open with a touchpad without leaving his car, cost £4,936 to install at his Huntingdon constituency home. They were put in to improve security amid concern about animal rights extremists who have targeted nearby Huntingdon Life Sciences, he said.
Other claims by Mr Djanogly included a £846 bill for two television digital boxes - although that was reduced by the Commons Fees Office to £517 - and the cost of a chimney sweep to clean three open fires.
Angela Browning:
The MP for Tiverton & Honiton used £10,000 in public money to set up and run her website. Mrs Browning, a former agriculture minister in John Major's government, also spent £7,300 on decorating and furnishing her second home, including a £1,000 bill for two radiator covers.
Christopher Chope:
Mr Chope, MP for Christchurch, in Dorset, put £881 for reupholstering a Chesterfield sofa and £10,377 for repairing the roof of the London house he shares with his wife on his second home expenses. He also billed taxpayers £2,600 for a new bathroom at the property.
Christopher Fraser:
The MP for South West Norfolk claimed more than £1,800 in expenses to buy 215 trees and fencing to mark out the boundary of his house.
John Greenway:
The MP for Ryedale in North Yorkshire spent £500 of taxpayers' money on pot plants and bushes for his garden and £1,900 on redecorating his second home which he sold for a £280,000 profit, it was reported.
He also claimed for a 59p box of matches, two boxes of firelighters worth 99p each, four bags of compost, a trellis and plant food for the London property, the Daily Telegraph said.
Small spenders:
Tory low claimers mentioned in the Telegraph were John Randall and Caroline Spelman who allegedly put the cost of a nanny on parliamentary expenses last year.
Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader and chairman of the Social Justice Policy Group, commutes to Westminster from his Chingford and Woodford Green constituency even though he is eligible for a second home.
Sir John Butterfill:
Tory grandee Sir John reportedly paid no capital gains tax on a £600,000 profit from a taxpayer-funded property. He is said to have lodged claims under second home allowance for his six-bedroom country house, complete with swimming pool and extensive grounds. He received £17,000 towards servants' quarters alone.
At the time he designated a small flat in his Bournemouth West constituency, bought for £56,000, as his "main residence" for the purposes of Commons expenses. But when he sold the country house for £1.2m in 2005, he informed HM Revenue & Customs that was his main home, meaning he was exempt from capital gains tax, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Sir John is now expected to pay at least £40,000 in capital gains tax, and has apparently agreed to refund more than £20,000 for the claims he made for his staff annex and repairs on the Bournemouth flat. That would make his expenses repayments the highest of any MP to date.
Bill Cash:
The senior Tory claimed more than £15,000 of public money to pay the rent on his daughter's London flat, it was reported. The MP designated a west London flat owned by his daughter Laetitia as his "second home" for Commons allowances during 2004 and 2005 - even though he owned a home closer to Westminster, it emerged.
Mr Cash, whose main home is a country house in Shropshire, said he did not live at his Pimlico flat or rent it out at the time. The Daily Telegraph added that Miss Cash, who is hoping to become a Conservative MP, sold her flat for a £48,000 profit soon after her father stopped claiming money for it.
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Eleanor Laing:
The shadow junior justice minister said she did not pay capital gains tax when she made £1 million profit on a second home bought with the help of the taxpayer. Mrs Laing claimed more than £80,000 from the public purse on two adjacent flats she bought in Westminster.
She sold the flats last year for £1.8 million, making at least a £1 million profit and leaving her with a capital gains tax bill of £180,000. But she designated them as her primary residence for tax purposes, avoiding a tax charge. The MP for Epping Forest said she consulted her solicitors about the tax liability when selling the flats.
Humfrey Malins:
The backbencher for Woking claimed £85,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses for a flat in which his children stayed rent-free. He said he spent two nights a week at the flat while parliament was sitting.
David Mundell:
Shadow Scottish secretary David Mundell defended spending £3,000 on cameras, photographers and editing software for what the Sunday Telegraph said was taking "hundreds of publicity pictures of himself". He said that "unlike most MPs" he paid for his own website and that he was happy for the £65-a-month cost to be examined by the Tories' internal scrutiny panel.
Tim Yeo:
The MP for South Suffolk was reported to have claimed £900 for a pink laptop "in the weeks leading up to Christmas". The paper said Commons officials decided against querying the claim. Questioned over claiming for a pink computer, the former minister told the Sunday Telegraph: "A laptop is a laptop whatever colour it is and this is a trivial point."
Bob Walter:
The North Dorset MP was said to have claimed more than £1,000 for handmade carpets.
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Jeremy Hunt:
The senior shadow cabinet minister referred himself to the Westminster sleaze watchdog after it was revealed he allowed his agent to stay rent-free in his taxpayer-subsidised second home.
The Sunday Mirror reported that the shadow culture secretary appeared to have breached Commons rules against anyone close to them or their party benefiting from allowances. It said agent Margaret Chellingworth stayed in the South West Surrey MP's £225,000 second home in Farnham on which he claimed £37,699 in second-home allowances over the last three years.
In a statement, Mr Hunt said: "I had a long-standing arrangement where I allowed my agent to stay free of charge at my home in Farnham.
"I was not aware and did not believe this is a breach of the rules but I have written to the commissioner for clarification and will repay any amount if he deems this necessary."
Michael Howard:
The former Tory leader reportedly claimed thousands for "gardening services" over four years for his designated second home, with invoices totalling more than £17,000 for work at the Kent house. The MP for Folkestone and Hyde told the Daily Telegraph that not all the work related to gardening and much of it included the upkeep of the home, to which he was entitled.
Jacqui Lait:
The MP for Beckenham overclaimed on her second home mortgage for three years and had to pay back more than £7,000 when the fees office noticed, according to the paper. Mrs Lait, a former shadow planning minister, told the paper she had a fixed-rate mortgage on the Beckenham flat and did not notice she was claiming the wrong amount.
Mark Hoban:
The MP for Fareham was said to have claimed £35 for a toilet roll holder, £100 for a chrome shower rack and £79 for four red silk cushion covers on his second home allowance. Mr Hoban told the Telegraph: "At the time I made these claims I believed that they were reasonable and within the spirit of the rules."
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Jacqui Lait:
The MP for Beckenham overclaimed on her second home mortgage for three years and had to pay back more than £7,000 when the fees office noticed, according to the paper. Mrs Lait, a former shadow planning minister, told the paper she had a fixed-rate mortgage on the Beckenham flat and did not notice she was claiming the wrong amount.
Mark Hoban:
The MP for Fareham was said to have claimed £35 for a toilet roll holder, £100 for a chrome shower rack and £79 for four red silk cushion covers on his second home allowance. Mr Hoban told the Telegraph: "At the time I made these claims I believed that they were reasonable and within the spirit of the rules."
Andrew Turner:
Mr Turner, former vice chair of the Conservative Party, used his office expenses to claim for "life coaching" classes for a member of staff. He also claimed £940 for HR advice and support during a dispute with a former employee and £6,471 to cover his compensation bill, the paper said.
In a note to the fees office, his girlfriend and parliamentary secretary said she looked forward to spending his refunded office expenses on "lots of booze" so that the 2005 election would go in an "alcoholic blur".
Shailesh Vara:
The shadow deputy leader of the Commons tried to claim £1,500 for mortgage interest payments, council tax and cleaning services when he was not yet an MP.
Charles Hendry:
The shadow energy minister claimed more than £7,300 to pay for domestic staff at his second home in East Sussex.
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Liberal Democrat claims:
Nick Clegg:
The current Lib Dem leader reportedly had his second home allowance docked last year after exceeding the £23,083 maximum by more than £100.
Other claims made included £1,657.32 for food, and phone bills which included calls to Colombia and Vietnam.
He said that when he sells his second home, any profit will go back to the taxpayer. Mr Clegg also said he had paid back the £80.20 cost of the international calls.
Andrew George:
The Liberal Democrat MP has claimed £847 a month for a riverside flat in London used by his student daughter, according to the Telegraph.
Mr George, who is MP for St Ives in Cornwall, said his daughter Morvah, 21, had access to the property in Rotherhithe but did not use it more than he did.
He also claimed hundreds of pounds for hotel stays with his wife. He has said he will repay £20 for a hotel breakfast.
Sir Menzies Campbell:
Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies spent nearly £10,000 of taxpayer funds refurbishing his central London flat.
Among the items claimed were a new king-size bed worth £1,024, bed linen worth £373 and five cushions costing £176.25. He also claimed thousands of pounds of food over the summer recess.
He will repay the £1,490.66 cost of an interior designer.
Chris Huhne:
The Lib Dem's home affairs spokesman regularly submits claims for food and groceries including pints of milk, fluffy dusters and chocolate biscuits.
Millionaire Mr Huhne, who is MP for Eastleigh in Hampshire, also expensed a £119 trouser press which was delivered to his main London home. He said he has repaid the cost of the trouser press.
Julia Goldsworthy:
The Lib Dem local government spokesman spent thousands of pounds on furniture just days before the deadline for using up parliamentary allowances, it was reported.
She bought a £999 TV, £1,500 of furniture in House of Fraser and a £1,200 leather rocking chair from upmarket furniture store Heal's on March 28 and 29, 2006, the paper said.
The House of Commons financial year ends at the beginning of April, after which expenses incurred must be set against a new allowance.
Ms Goldsworthy said she bought the flat in south London on 31 March 2006. "Because it was an unfurnished flat, I purchased furniture so that it could be delivered on or near the date the purchase was complete. I claimed only reasonable costs for furnishings," the MP said.
She has promised to pay back £1,005 for a leather rocking chair.
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Lembit Opik:
Lib Dem housing spokesman Mr Opik billed a £40 summons for the non-payment of council tax on a flat to his second home expenses.
He told the Telegraph that he would pay back the sum.
Alan Reid:
The Lib Dem MP for Argyll and Bute in Scotland has claimed more than £1,500 for staying in hotels and bed and breakfasts in his constituency, according to the Telegraph.
The paper said he put in receipts for eight nights in Scottish lodgings during 2005/06, but was told by the Commons fees office that stays in constituency hotels could not be claimed.
In 2007/08, he also claimed for three stays in Scottish hotels including one overlooking Loch Etive and one of the Isle of Bute, 38 miles from his designated second home.
Mr Reid told the paper it was sometimes impractical for him to travel home at night from various locations in Scotland due to lack of ferries and adequate transport.
Norman Baker:
Campaigning Lib Dem MP Norman Baker asked the Commons fees office if he could claim for a bicycle for use between his London flat and Parliament. The request was denied.
Nick Harvey:
Lib Dem MP Mr Harvey, who is nominated as the spokesman for the House of Commons, had to be reminded twice by officials to submit receipts with his expenses.
Richard Younger-Ross:
The Liberal Democrat MP claimed more than £4,000 of taxpayer-funded expenses for furnishings.
The items included £1,200 on mirrors, £500 on a bookcase and £1,475 chest of drawers for his second home in Westminster.
Mr Younger-Ross admitted his work as a middle-class architectural consultant on wealthy people's homes had blinded him to what struggling voters would consider "luxury items".
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Phil Willis:
The Lib-Dem MP spent around £15,000 of taxpayers' money on mortgage interest payments and refurbishing a flat in which his daughter now lives, according to the newspaper.
Mr Willis, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, then bought another property next door and went on to claim more than £2,500 in stamp duty and legal fees and £3,000 on decorating and furnishings. The taxpayer also forked out for increased mortgage interest payments on the new flat.
Jo Swinson:
Ms Swinson, the youngest MP in the Commons, was said to have put a raft of small claims on expenses, including eyeliner, a £19.10 "tooth flosser" and 29p dusters. The Lib-Dem MP, who was just 25 when she was elected, denied claiming for cosmetics but admitted using expenses to pay for dozens of everyday items.
Sir Alan Beith:
Sir Alan, a possible contender for the post of Speaker, claimed £117,000 on his second home while his wife, Baroness Maddock, put £60,000 on her House of Lords expenses for the same property.
The Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick-on-Tweed billed taxpayers for rent, food and cleaning at the flat and Lady Maddock has claimed an average of £10,000 per year in "overnight" allowances, the Telegraph reported.
Charles Kennedy:
The former Liberal Democrat leader claimed taxpayer-funded expenses for teddy bears and mints from the House of Commons shop. But Mr Kennedy, MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, said the claim had been submitted in error and the money repaid.
The request for reimbursement for the three tins of confectionery and the two soft toys - worth £5.95 and £8.95 - was revealed by The Sunday Telegraph.
Evan Harris:
The Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon was reported to have spent thousands adding value to his designated second home before selling it to his parents. The MP was allowed by the fees office to increase his mortgage on his Westminster flat to pay for the £40,000 cost of extending the lease, according to the Telegraph.
The paper also said he spent more than £6,600 of taxpayers' funds doing up the apartment before selling it to his parents in 2008 for £200,000 more than he paid for it in 1997.
Mr Harris said: "I reject any implied impropriety. There was no refurbishment and no major expenditure on redecoration. The only major item was a plumbing bill to repair a leak."
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Sinn Fein claims:
Five Sinn Fein MPs raked in expenses of almost £500,000 for running a second home - despite not taking up their seats in the Commons.
The party's two most senior figures, president Gerry Adams and Northern Ireland deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, were said to have jointly claimed £3,600 a month to rent a shared two-bedroom flat in the capital, which a local estate agent suggested would be worth £1,400 a month.
The three other MPs, Michelle Gildernew, Pat Doherty and Conor Murphy, together claimed £5,400 a month to rent a shared town house estimated to be worth around £1,800 a month.
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Democratic Unionist Party claims:
Peter and Iris Robinson:
The couple, who are both Democratic Unionist Party MPs, are said to have both claimed expenses based on the same £1,223 bill when they submitted claims in 2007.
They also had claims for £10,860 of mortgage interest rejected because no mortgage interest statements had been submitted to back up the claim, it was reported.
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Scottish National Party claims:
Alex Salmond
Scotland's First Minister and MP for Banff and Buchan, claimed £400 per month for food when the House of Commons was in recess. He also claimed more than £1,700 in expenses for food, even though his appearances in the House of Commons became less frequent when he took over the top role in the Scottish parliament.
Angus Robertson:
The SNP's leader in Westminster successfully appealed when Commons authorities turned down his claim for a £400 home cinema system, it was reported today.
The Telegraph said Mr Robertson made second home claims totalling more than £80,000 in the four years from 2004 to 2008. Other purchases included a coffee maker, £100 on Sabatier knives and £20 for a corkscrew, according to the paper. Claims also included legal fees and £2,275 stamp duty.
He told the newspaper the costs were one-off set-up accommodation costs for a small flat.
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Other MP claims:
Speaker of the House, Michael Martin:
Michael Martin, who as Commons speaker fought to prevent MPs' expenses claims entering the public domain, spent more than £1,400 on chauffeurs in his Glasgow constituency in 2004/05.
Clare Short:
The former Cabinet minister was paid £8,000 too much after claiming for her full mortgage payments despite only being entitled to the interest, it was revealed.
Ms Short - who now sits as an independent, having quit the Government in 2003 over the Iraq war - claimed the full cost of her mortgage for two and a half years despite being entitled to charge only for the interest.
Derek Conway:
The disgraced former Tory whip was able to spend thousands of pounds in public money on two homes by designating his main residence as an office.
Mr Conway, who was expelled from the Conservative Party last year over payments to his sons for parliamentary work, claimed mortgage interest and household bills for his designated second home in London.
The independent MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup also purchased items including a £573.99 television, a £199 Zanussi fridge freezer, a £174 "low radiation" telephone and a £399 sat nav device on office expenses for his family house in Morpeth, Northumberland.
Mr Conway, who employs his wife as his PA, also had a home in his Bexley constituency in south-east London - more than 300 miles away from his Northumberland "office", the paper reported.
Malcolm Bruce:
The president of the Scottish Liberal Democrats claimed running costs for his family home because his wife worked there as his office manager and diary secretary.
Mr Bruce claimed £3,100 towards the cost of electricity, heating and cleaning for the couple's house in Deeside, north east Scotland, between April 2006 and March 2008 under the Incidental Expenditure Provision (IEP) which is designed to cover office costs. Mr Bruce's constituency office in Inverurie is 22 miles from his home.
During the same period, Mr Bruce claimed £61,186 from the additional costs allowance (ACA) for his flat in London which was registered as his second home.
Eddie McGrady:
The Social Democratic and Labour Party MP for South Down, Northern Ireland, spent more than £17,000 on London hotels, including one five-star estabishment.
But the fees office refused to refund some of Mr McGrady's additional claims which included £1,562 for food, £184 for telephone and £826 for "laundry, sundries etc" over eight days.
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