Tories repay £250,000 in show of ‘atonement’

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The Tory leader laid down the ruling at a meeting of backbenchers where the mood was described as "sorrowful".

Some 80 MPs and shadow ministers will pay back money ranging from £4 for a tin of dog food and hundred of pounds claimed for horse manure to £20,000 for home improvements.

Among them, Bromsgrove MP Julie Kirkbride will repay £700 for a child's bed and blind for her son, but no decision was reached on whether her husband, Andrew MacKay, should pay back up to £140,000 for second home expenses. Mr Cameron said he knew it was "rough justice" and unfair to many decent MPs, but he was supported when he insisted the move was necessary to show "atonement".

He assured MPs that he was not mounting a "witch hunt" or a purge.

A full list of repayments was being published by the scrutiny committee, a body set up by Mr Cameron to apply higher standards than those of the Commons rulebook. The Tory leader has repaid £947, including a bill for clearing wisteria from his chimney and £218.91 in mortgage overclaims.