MPs' expenses: what they claimed (part 3)
Updated on 29 May 2009
The full list of what MPs claimed for on their expenses, as revealed to date by the Daily Telegraph.
- Labour claims (part 1)
- Labour claims (part 2)
- Labour claims (part 3)
- 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.
Labour claims (part 3)
Rosie Cooper:
The ministerial aide defended claiming more than £11,000 in expenses to cover legal fees and stamp duty on her second home. Miss Cooper insisted she had made "appropriate use" of the allowance regime to pay for items including a £99.99 steam cleaner and £5,000 towards repairing decrepit plumbing at her 1930s Westminster flat.
The West Lancashire MP, who is an aide to Health Minister Ben Bradshaw, has also pledged that any profit from the sale of her flat will be returned to the taxpayer.
Colin Challen:
MP for Morley and Rothwell sold his London flat to his senior researcher but carried on renting it for a nightly fee, it was reported.
Mark Hendrick:
The Preston MP admitted estimating the amount of mortgage interest he paid on his second home. He claimed up to £1,015 a month on his London flat before "flipping" his second home designation to a house in his constituency, where his claims rose to £1,469.
Peter Hain:
Former Cabinet minister Mr Hain reportedly asked if he could claim on two mortgages for homes in his constituency. The request was turned down. He also charged the cost of a new tin roof for a log store to the taxpayer.
Lynne Jones:
The left-wing MP for Birmingham Selly Oak billed the taxpayer for more than £1,100 of upmarket wallpaper at her second London home. She gave the Lambeth flat a £22,000 upgrade, the Telegraph said, including a £6,000 bathroom, £600 worth of Persian rugs and £518 for an LCD television.
Celia Barlow:
The MP for Hove used her second home allowance to spend more than £28,000 on stamp duty, legal costs and renovations despite telling the fees office that the property would become her second home.
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Nigel Griffiths:
Edinburgh South MP Mr Griffiths tried to defend a £3,600 claim for a television, DVD player and digital radio in his London home by saying he had to listen to "Scottish radio" and watch "Scottish TV", according to the Telegraph.
The former minister was said to have told the Commons fees office that a flat-screen television was the "sensible option" in a cramped flat. The fees office wrote back days later to tell him that while the explanation was understandable, the "level of purchases" remained under question. He did not pursue the claim.
According to the newspaper, Mr Griffiths successfully claimed £9,250 to redecorate his London flat and £450 for a carpet, pots and kitchen utensils in November 2004.
Charlotte Atkins:
The MP for Staffordshire Moorlands claimed £35,000 in renovations for her second home, including £20,000 for windows, £4,000 for the chimney, £9,000 for the bathroom and nearly £2,000 for the garden. The fees office argued the windows claim was "beyond the definition for allowable work set out in the Green Book".
Brian Donohoe:
Mr Donohoe put through a £2,575 receipt for a three-seat sofa and two double seaters, and was challenged by the Fees office as the address printed on the invoice was for his main home in Scotland, rather than his London second home. The Central Ayrshire MP eventually provided a receipt made out to his London home.
Tom Harris:
The MP for Glasgow South became embroiled in a row with the Commons fees office when his claims for a baby cot and steriliser at his second home in London were rejected.
The Fees office said they were not "wholly, exclusively and necessarily" incurred for parliamentary duties. Mr Harris argued the claim was valid because he only lived in London through his work as an MP.
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Frank Cook:
Mr Cook has apologised for apparently trying to claim back from the taxpayer a £5 donation he made during a church service to commemorate the Battle of Britain. The Sunday Telegraph said the claim followed a memorial service in his Stockton-on-Tees constituency but was rejected by the House of Commons Fees Office.
Mr Cook said he had "no recollection" of asking to be reimbursed, but accepted that the newspaper would not have invented the claim and said it was "wrong" that it happened.
Roger Godsiff:
The MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath was reported to have claimed a bath mat, gardening equipment and more than £7,000 of repairs on office expenses. It said he was claiming the maximum in second-home expenses in mortgage interest.
Glenda Jackson:
The MP for Hampstead and Highgate has repaid more than £8,000 in expenses claimed towards the publication of an annual report. First Magazine carried a reference to the Labour party in breach of the rules, according to the Sunday Telegraph. The former actress said: "I failed to proof-read a line at the very end of the document which mentioned the party and I have paid back the money."
Natascha Engel:
The MP for North East Derbyshire's claims included £117.50 for 10 copies of a DVD of her maiden speech, as well as a novel by a German writer. She told the Telegraph they were "inappropriate" and she would pay them back.
Gwyn Prosser:
The MP for Dover and Deal paid his brother to lay flooring at his London flat although he reportedly lived almost 200 miles away. Mr Prosser said his brother was "good value for money".
Tony McNulty:
The Work and Pensions Minister claimed more than £2,000 in accountancy bills, the newspaper said. Mr McNulty earlier admitted "mistakenly" claiming thousands of pounds on a house where his parents lived and repaid the money.
Margaret Hodge:
The MP for Barking claimed more than £2,200 for "PR support" from a company run by Janet Coull, who had previously worked for Mrs Hodge. The former culture minister told the newspaper she had paid Ms Coull for "articles, reports and speech writing", not PR.
Alan Meale:
The former environment minister and Mansfield MP claimed more than £13,000 over four years for his garden. The claims included a new storage building, bark chippings, repairs to fences and gates, a £700 garden bench and a £2,000 bill to clear trees and shrubbery at his Nottinghamshire constituency home.
Howard Stoate:
The MP for Dartford, whose designated second home is just 15 miles from his constituency property, claimed a total of £55,836 despite having no mortgage or rent to pay.
More than £1,000 was spent in DIY chain B&Q while £4,520 on Everest replacement windows.
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Bob Ainsworth:
The Armed Forces Minister was reportedly paid nearly £6,000 for work on his second home and asked the taxpayer to stump up for a £1,000 LCD television and a £2,225 sofa. But the claims for the sofa and television were both deemed excessive and rejected by officials.
The newspaper said the Coventry North East MP submitted invoices totalling £8,025 in July 2005 for work including removing a wall, fitting oak beams, "hacking" off Artex, constructing an "archway for fire" and brickwork "for support of railway sleeper".
Electrical work, preparing floors for laminate, fitting a drain gully, pine doors, a gate, a fence and decoration following the internal work "in the style of your choice", were also detailed, it said.
It was followed by claims for #951 of fencing, £1,160 for a gas fire, £2,000 to re-point part of the property and more fencing worth £4,500. Mr Ainsworth told the newspaper that by reducing the bill to the public to £5,925, he had ensured the taxpayer paid only for repairs not "improvements" - which cannot be reclaimed under Commons rules.
The newspaper said Mr Ainsworth claimed a total of £19,920 in renovations, repairs, furniture and electrical equipment and regularly claimed the £400 maximum allowance for food as well as £45 each month for dry cleaning.
Ann and John Cryer:
The mother and son designated the same flat as their second home when they were both MPs. Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for Keighley, charged the taxpayer £1,200 a month for rent while living in a Westminster flat owned by her daughter and son-in-law.
Meanwhile, her son John Cryer, then MP for Hornchurch, claimed £400 a month for food on the additional costs allowance on the flat.
After moving out of her daughter's flat, Mrs Cryer bought a property in a neighbouring apartment block and claimed £10,126 in stamp duty and legal fees and £3,243 on household goods.
Alice Mahon:,br>
Ms Mahon, who represented Halifax in West Yorkshire from 1987 until 2005, reportedly used her expenses to repay a £20,000 home improvement loan.
The arrangement was approved by the fees office but the newspaper said that by 2004 officials were concerned it was broke the rules. However, they decided they were obliged to continue the repayments and Ms Mahon received at least £17,000 before standing down at the 2005 election.
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Anne Campbell:
The former Labour MP for Cambridge reportedly sold her designated second home in London to her son, whom she part-owned it with, after she lost her seat. Mrs Campbell told the paper the sale of the share in the property was at the market rate and her son had never stayed there while she was an MP.
Estelle Morris:
The former education secretary spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money on refurbishing her London flat in the run-up to the 2005 general election and shortly before she was nominated for a seat in the Lords, it was reported.
Alan Howarth:
In the year before he stood down as an MP, Lord Howarth switched his second home designation to a house he owned near Parliament and claimed £8,500 in repairs and renovations.
Geraint Davies:
The former MP for Croydon Central spent £4,000 on renovating his second home in the months before he lost his seat in the 2005 election. He was also reimbursed £864 for taxis without submitting receipts despite travel costs not being allowed on second home allowances.
Small spenders:
Government low claimers mentioned in the Telegraph were Malcolm Wicks, David Drew, and Laura Moffatt. Ms Moffatt, MP for Crawley, was said to have given up the comfort of a London flat she used to put on parliamentary expenses for a camp bed in her Westminster office.
Expenses "saints" also included Jim Cunningham, MP for Coventry South; Julie Morgan, MP for Cardiff North; and Patrick Hall, MP for Bedford.
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