Go and face your public, Tory leader Cameron orders Julie Kirkbride

The Tory leader said the Bromsgrove MP should hold meetings to explain claims for a second home.

However, such a move could seal her political fate as happened to her husband Andrew MacKay, who was forced to announce at the weekend that he will stand down as a Tory MP at the next election, after being hit by a volley of criticism, including being called a "thieving toad", at a public meeting in his Bracknell constituency.

He had claimed tens of thousands of pounds in taxpayer-funded housing allowances despite not having a proper second home.

Asked on BBC TV what Mr Cameron's advice to Ms  Kirkbride would be, the Tory leader said: "The best thing to do, and I have said this to all my MPs, is to get out with your constituents, to hold meetings, to listen to them, to talk to them, to explain all of the circumstances of why we claimed... to hold up your hand if you made mistakes and got things wrong and start to rebuild trust in the political system."

Mr Cameron's aides were today insisting he was not moving to ditch Ms Kirkbride but her career could be finished if she is slated in public by furious constituents.

Thousands of people have already signed an online petition calling for her to go. And campaigners seeking to oust her are planning an unprecedented "Julie Must Go" public rally at the weekend.

David Cameron also appeared to be distancing himself from the embattled MP after the Standard revealed she is using public funds to employ her sister as a £12,000-a-year secretary to work from home in Dorset, more than 100 miles from both her Bromsgrove constituency and the Commons.

Ms Kirkbride has admitted that she was aware of the "structure of his claims" as she billed the taxpayer to pay for the running of her second home in Worcestershire.

"We had felt our expenses would not be queried, and that whilst the antiquated system is obviously in need of wholesale reform, we had claimed correctly," she told local Tory activists.

Ms Kirkbride, who added she was "devastated by recent events", also faces allegations that she allowed her brother Ian to stay rent-free for several years at her second home, a claim she has rejected as a "distortion".

In addition, she has posted on her website a lengthy explanation of why he bought around £1,000 of computer equipment on her expenses, insisting it was for her use as an MP, not for him to work as an IT consultant.

But she was fighting a rearguard action to justify her claims of more than £140,000 over seven years for a second home.

So far Ms Kirkbride has retained the backing of her local party chairman Alan Dent.

In a message to Conservative Party members, Mr Dent wrote: "Never before in Bromsgrove has it been more important for us all to unite behind our MP Julie Kirkbride."

However, support from senior Tories in London appeared to be waning. One source said: "Julie will have to fight hard in her constituency and so far she has not done so. It would be good to see a public meeting soon."

More than 1,000 people have joined a Julie Must Go Facebook group and 4,000 have signed a petition calling on her to resign.

Louise Marnell, chair of the Julie Must Go campaign, said: "What we want is simple — we want Julie to resign and to have an immediate by-election.

"If Julie is convinced she has done nothing wrong and still has the support of the majority of her constituents, then let the people decide."

Meanwhile, Ryedale Tory MP John Greenway faced claims in the Daily Telegraph that he spent £500 of public funds on pot plants and bushes for the garden in his south London home before selling it for a profit of £280,000. He insists all his claims were made in good faith and that he paid capital gains tax on the sale.

And Deputy Speaker Sir Alan Haselhurst has agreed to repay, "out of respect" for his Saffron Walden constituents, £12,000 claimed for gardening help.