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With a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much fun
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MPs' expenses list reveals David Cameron 'used the system' to claim £21,000 in a year to pay his mortgage
Last updated at 01:37am on 06.04.08
Thumbs up: He also has a £2million home in London
The first published breakdown of MPs' expenses also showed that Gordon Brown charged £15,000 to fit out his London flat for his family.
The Prime Minister claimed £2,300 for food and £4,980 for cleaning.
He and Tony Blair claimed for their television licences, Sir Menzies Campbell put in for laundry costs and John Prescott charged for £4,000 worth of food in one year - £80 a week.
The average household spends £2,444 a year.
Details of how senior MPs fund their living costs were disclosed by Commons Speaker Michael Martin under pressure from campaigners.
The figures raise awkward questions for the party leaders and will intensify pressure for sweeping reform of the way MPs pay themselves.
The House of Commons released a partial breakdown of how a group of MPs claim the Additional Costs Allowance, which gives them up to £22,000 a year to help with the cost of running two homes.
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Splendid isolation: David Cameron's £750,000 constituency home
Mr Cameron has a home in Notting Hill, West London and a second in Dean, Oxfordshire
Mr Martin threw in the towel after the Information Commissioner ruled that he was wrong to withhold information about the detail of how the allowance is claimed.
Information on 12 MPs, including Mr Brown, Mr Cameron, Mr Blair and Mr Prescott was released showing how they allocated the total they claimed between a number of categories including mortgage, telephone, cleaning, food and maintenance.
Similar information on all 646 MPs will be released in the autumn, under a plan announced by the Commons Commission which is chaired by the Speaker.
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The outcome of a High Court appeal could force the Commons to publish an even more detailed breakdown of every claim.
The numbers were released last night to the Freedom of Information campaigner Heather Brooke and the BBC after a day of delays.
George Osborne, the Tory Shadow Chancellor and heir to the Osborne and Little wallpaper empire, claimed £18,000 for his mortgage.
Samantha Cameron received a £300,000 pay cheque in 2006
His expenses and those of Mr Cameron stood out because they claim close to the maximum allowed and devote it almost entirely to the cost of servicing the loans to buy their constituency homes.
Mr Cameron, who has led calls for sweeping changes to MPs'expenses, has made no secret of the fact that he uses the housing allowance to pay the mortgage on his £750,000 house in his Oxfordshire constituency.
The Tory leader has no mortgage on his house in London, which is said to be worth £2million.
He comes from a well-off family and his wife Samantha is the daughter of a land-owning baronet.
A Tory spokesman said: "We support the publication of these details. David Cameron, George Osborne and William Hague have complied fully with the rules."
Commons authorities have spent thousands of pounds to keep the figures secret and are ready to spend an estimated £100,000 in a High Court battle to stop further details from being released.
Labour sources said the changes in Mr Brown's claims reflect the transition from bachelor to married man with a small family.
They say he had to spend considerable sums to make his Westminster flat habitable for his wife Sarah and son John in 2005/6.
Eyebrows may be raised by his claim for the cost of satellite TV subscriptions but as with Mr Cameron's mortgage costs all the claims released yesterday are within existing rules.
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The documents revealed John Prescott charged for £4,000 worth of food in one year, while Gordon Brown claimed £2,300
Mrs Brooke said taxpayers deserved to know more.
"The way it's been handled has been a complete farce and a waste of taxpayers' money," she said.
"The fact that they are still fighting through the High Court to keep secret the detailed claims and receipts shows how much importance they place in that."
Mr Blair claimed £3,950 toward his mortgage on his constituency home, £1,600 for cleaning and £640 for a dishwasher.
Reader views (10)
MPs are really just extremely greedy pigs with their snouts buried deeply into the trough of corruption and public funds.
Their hidden & loathsome ways harkens back to the morals of Tiberius, Caligula and Nero (although when pushed he did have the decency to opt out, a lot of our MPs should do the same, wholesale), what an example of self-interest.
Then of course there is the matter of all their other jobs.
I'm angry 'cos I'm really very disabled (you don't need to be a doctor or Uncivil Serpents to see my problems) yet our Socialist (well allegedly) PM and his cronnies would like to cut the £85 a week I get to live on, that's only 33% of the money they can claim at any time without a receipt. The system seems a tad unfair! I suppose he could also raise the lowest tax rate to help pay for his lavish lifestyle. Oops to late they've just done that too.
- Mark & Sue Howard, Bradford, West Yorks.
Hypocrites the lot of them! How dare they send out leaflets and advice telling those on £45 a week benefit or pension how to feed their families. They're no better than those foreign politicians skimming public funds for personal expenses. Don't they think they earn enough without continuing to steal from us. Stop the expenses these could pay for the scans and other equipment our hospitals need, books our schools don't have, running children's hospices where we presently have to raise funds through charitable donations. It's appalling to think that they and their families do this - this is not what they are voted in for to steal from us - but this is what it appears they are doing.
- Kerry Green, Mansfield Notts
Enough is enough.
When will MPs start to live in the real world.
- Ian, London
Nice pictures of Mr Cameron's 3 houses. But guess what?
In the MPs' Register of Interests he has no entry for Section 8: Land and Property. Not even for the house on which he claims the ACA.
Would an entry saying house in Constituency, house in London, house in Devon in the Register really compromise his security.
Oh, why does the Commons operate like this ?
- Peter Hooper, Windsor. Berkshire. UK
Can someone please explain to me why MPs are allowed to claim for the cost of food? Surely it doesn't matter whether the MP is in his/her constituency or in their London flat they only need to buy the same amount of food!
The only way to allow MPs to continue claim all this money for their second homes - is for Parliament to be a co-owner of the London property (to the proportion: amount given to MP over course of ownership/original value of the property), which has to be sold once the MP is no longer an MP, which would encourage the MP to pay for as much out of his/her own pocket!
- Andy, London
£5000 a year on cleaning products for Mr Brown? Certainly brings a new meaning to the phrase "Flash Gordon" - Wonder if it'll leave this government smear free?
- Adam Ramsey, Grantham, England
Looking at the size of Prescott I'm surprised his food bill wasn't a lot more!
- Graham, London
Maybe at last the British public will realise that no matter what party an MP is affiliated to, they are all on the take.
- Casper Slides, Ibiza, Spain
Oink! Oink!
- Bill, Edison NJ USA
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: let the MPs have their £23k John Lewis allowance - as long as anybody who moves house or has to spend 3 nights a week away from home can have a similar rebate on their tax.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, Scotland
