Speaker backs curb on MPs' expenses

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Despite fury among many MPs at Sir Thomas Legg's decision to impose retrospective rules, a spokesman for Mr Bercow said he accepted the limits had already been "implicit".

The intervention came as Labour backbencher Alan Simpson pledged to go to court rather than return £500 he has been accused of over-claiming in cleaning bills.

Mr Simpson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Sir Thomas had got it "profoundly wrong" and risked "making an ass of himself".

"If he thinks that the principle of him coming in and retrospectively re-writing the rules would stand up before the courts, then I think he should test it before the courts," the Nottingham South MP said. "I just want to give him the opportunity to reflect on something he has got profoundly wrong. I don't want to push him into going before the courts and making a bit of an ass of himself, but I think it's a corner he might usefully like to take himself out of. I can't bring myself to believe that he would be so stupid as to want to stay in that corner."

The strength of feeling was also evident in the Commons, where Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg was jeered after suggesting that the audit of the past five years should be even tougher.

Sir Thomas sparked the controversy by deciding that no MP should have claimed more than £1,000 a year for gardening and £2,000 for cleaning. The move means scores are now being asked to repay thousands of pounds of spending that was signed off by Commons officials.

Mr Bercow's spokesman denied reports this evening that he had tried to persuade Sir Thomas against introducing backdated caps, insisting the men had only discussed whether the limits should be cash, or a percentage of the expenses claimed.

"The Speaker accepts Sir Thomas's view that this is not retrospective, but what was implicit in the rules as written," the spokesman said.

The ruling Commons Members Estimate Committee (MEC) will take the final decision on whether to implement Sir Thomas's recommendations after he delivers his final report in December. They could opt to put the matter to a full vote in the House.