Cabinet ministers join scramble to pay back money

Children's Secretary Mr Balls admitted that he failed to calculate accurately the impact of falling interest rates - and so charged the taxpayer £1,350 more than he spent.

Similar blunders were admitted by Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Mr Balls's wife, Yvette Cooper, the Work and Pensions Secretary.

All three joined an undignified scramble of senior ministers and backbenchers to repay money to the Commons in fear of being disgraced for over-charging. Mr Miliband paid back £434.24 and Ms Cooper handed in £1,350.

A total of 183 MPs have repaid cash totalling £478,616. The sums were on a list slipped out by the Commons last night which sparked a new secrecy row because it failed to explain what had happened.

Chancellor Alistair Darling also admitted to mistakes and repaid £958.04. The sum covered £660 he had already promised to pay for a service charge for a flat he let out, with an extra £290 to cover a share of his TV licence and ground rent.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham paid £2,742 to cover two cases where he was overpaid because of administrative errors by Commons officials.

Gordon Brown made four paybacks totalling just over £800 to rectify "inadvertent errors or for the avoidance of doubt", said his office. They included £466.85 for cleaning costs that were accidentally claimed twice, an error only revealed today.

Another senior Cabinet minister privately repaid £12,600. International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander sent cheques for £4,200 and £8,400 following revelations that he was receiving rental income at a second home funded by the taxpayer.

Between May 2001 and September 2005, he sublet part of his Scottish constituency home to a tenant who lived there before he bought it while claiming £73,000 in second-home allowances for the cost of the entire home. The minister said he reduced his claims in line with the rental income. But records show he claimed close to the annual maximum.

On the Tory side, shadow chancellor George Osborne paid back three sums: £440.62, £654.91 and £99.96. His spokesman said they covered a simple change to the way he paid his property insurance and "an administrative error [that] was discovered and immediately repaid with interest a month ago".

The biggest payback was a staggering £42,674 from Health Minister Phil Hope. He was criticised for buying large amounts of furniture for a small London flat.

Labour MP Barbara Follett repaid £32,000, covering security patrols outside her London home. And Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has repaid £79.50.

Several Tories repaid money after criticism. Michael Gove paid £571.75 and £7,114; Chris Grayling £4,143.75; and Oliver Letwin £2,150. Tory Sir Alan Haselhurst, a candidate for Speaker, repaid £15,754 of "gardening expenses".