MPs condemned over expenses move

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Under proposals tabled by Commons Leader Harriet Harman, Parliament will get key exemptions from the Freedom of Information Act.

The move will be backdated to nullify rulings by the High Court and Information Tribunal that receipt-by-receipt breakdowns for how public money is spent must be published.

To compensate, the Commons is set to issue slightly more information than before about how MPs use their allowances.

The plans, slipped out amid the furore over expanding Heathrow Airport, constitute the latest stage in the Commons authorities' rearguard action to avoid full disclosure. They come despite the House already having spent up to £1 million scanning and redacting around a million receipts - which could now never see the light of day.

Outlining the changes to MPs, Ms Harman made no reference to the FOI rulings or receipts. She insisted that in future their expenses would be listed under twice as many headings, but disclosure had to be "affordable and proportionate".

"The public will have more information than they ever have before and we will take it back to 2005 so that for all Members, each year their allowances against 26 headings will be made public," she said.

There will also be tighter auditing of the controversial £93 million-a-year parliamentary allowances system, according to Ms Harman.

But Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said people would ask what their elected representatives had to hide.

"It is an absolute disgrace that the Government are going to such absurd lengths to keep MPs' expenses secret from the very people who pay the bills," he added. "This is taxpayers' money, these are elected representatives and the people have a right to know how their money is being spent."