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| MPs hit back over expenses claims | MPs hit back over expenses claims |
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| MPs have been defending their expenses claims after more details were published in the Daily Telegraph. | MPs have been defending their expenses claims after more details were published in the Daily Telegraph. |
| Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton, is alleged to have claimed more than £20,000 for a house 100 miles from her constituency. | Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton, is alleged to have claimed more than £20,000 for a house 100 miles from her constituency. |
| She says the report is "inaccurate" and "potentially actionable". | She says the report is "inaccurate" and "potentially actionable". |
| Immigration minister Phil Woolas has also threatened legal action over "disgusting" allegations he claimed for women's clothing, nappies and comics. | Immigration minister Phil Woolas has also threatened legal action over "disgusting" allegations he claimed for women's clothing, nappies and comics. |
| Health minister Ben Bradshaw - Exeter MP and minister for the South West - has also said claims made about his expenses in Saturday's paper were factually wrong. | Health minister Ben Bradshaw - Exeter MP and minister for the South West - has also said claims made about his expenses in Saturday's paper were factually wrong. |
| Labour ministers Phil Hope and Barbara Follett, as well as Tory MP Greg Barker, who were also named, say they have not broken rules. | Labour ministers Phil Hope and Barbara Follett, as well as Tory MP Greg Barker, who were also named, say they have not broken rules. |
| The Telegraph's latest story came a day after the paper published details of 13 Cabinet ministers' expenses. It plans to publish further revelations about MPs from other parties in the coming days. | |
| The Commons authorities have complained to the Metropolitan Police, who confirmed they were considering a request for an investigation into the leak to the paper. | |
| Police complaint | |
| The Telegraph also printed details of the expenses of Keith Vaz, a former minister who now chairs the home affairs select committee. | |
| Mr Vaz reportedly claimed £75,000 for a Westminster flat although his family's home is 12 miles away in Stanmore. | |
| He said that he had acted within the rules. He added that his designated home was in his Leicester constituency, the Westminster flat was his second home, and he made no claims for the home in Stanmore where his family lives. | |
| The purchases I made were no more than was necessary to live in a habitable residence Care services minister Phil Hope MPs' expense claims - key details Q&A: The MP expenses row | |
| Backbench Labour MP Margaret Moran also hit back following coverage in the Telegraph. | |
| The paper said she spent £22,500 on treating dry rot at the coastal property she had designated as her second home - which is not in London and is 100 miles from her Luton constituency. | |
| Outside the Southampton property, Ms Moran said she would give a full statement to the BBC's Politics Show East. | |
| She added that the Telegraph story contained "gross inaccuracies" and insisted that her actions had been "fully within the rules". | |
| And the first prominent Conservative MP has been named by the paper. Shadow climate change minister Greg Barker has denied he made a profit on the sale of a house by "working the expenses system". | |
| He said the Telegraph story did not make clear "that there was a very substantial six-figure sum of my own money involved, that wasn't claimed for". | |
| "It would be completely inaccurate and untrue for the Telegraph to allege that the difference in purchase and sale price represented a profit." | |
| 'Disgusting' reporting | |
| Labour minister Barbara Follett claimed more than £25,000 for security at her home, but she said this met Commons rules and gave no further comment. | |
| Mrs Follett's total bill for security patrols between 2004 and 2008 - which started after she was mugged - was £25,411.64, the paper said. | |
| The question you have to ask is who devised the system? MPs devised the system under their self-regulating arrangements Sir Alistair Graham, ex-chairman, committee for standards in public life | |
| The wife of author Ken Follett and one of Parliament's richest MPs, she also claimed £528.75 for a Chinese needlepoint rug to be repaired and cleaned, but was only paid back £300 after it was deemed excessive, the Telegraph said. | |
| She told the newspaper: "As all of [my claims], bar one, have been accepted and cleared by the House of Commons Fees Office under the rules laid out in the Green Book, I have no further comment to make on them." | |
| She said the item not accepted was claimed in error and was one of the two occasions in the last 12 years her expenses claims had been queried. | |
| Meanwhile Mr Woolas called the Telegraph's reporting "absolutely disgusting" and said he believed the newspaper's claims might be "actionable" and he was seeking legal advice. | |
| Woolas: Items on receipts not claimed | |
| The minister claims nappies and women's clothing were listed on a receipt for food which he submitted, but he did not receive any money for them. | |
| Saturday's 11-page report also said care services minister Phil Hope had spent more than £37,000 over about four years on refurbishing and furnishing a two-bedroom south London flat. | |
| Mr Hope said: "I claimed the cost of running and furnishing a flat in London, in full accordance with the rules that apply to members of Parliament. | |
| "The purchases I made were no more than was necessary to live in a habitable residence and replacements only occurred when furniture and fittings were worn out. These items were then disposed of. | |
| "I have not personally benefited from this process." | |
| 'Drip, drip' | |
| Full details of all MPs' expenses dating back four years, running to 2.4 million receipts, were due to be published in the middle of July after the Commons authorities lost a Freedom of Information battle. | |
| But instead, the Telegraph is revealing the information early. | |
| BBC political correspondent Ben Wright said: "MPs from other parties are going to be drawn into this, backbenchers too. There is a feeling that that is where some of the real, shocking horror stories of claims may then come to light, on the back benches." | |
| Once again the gap between the reactions of politicians and the public has been stark Nick Robinson's Newslog | |
| Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker has called for the official release of the information to be brought forward, to avoid the "drip drip effect" of the Daily Telegraph story. | |
| However, his fellow Lib Dem MP Nick Harvey, a member of the House of Commons Commission, which is responsible for publishing the data, said it would be premature to release it while officials were still "getting it into a form where the public can make some sense out of it". | |
| Former chairman of the committee for standards in public life, Sir Alistair Graham, said the expenses system had to be decided in the public and taxpayers' interest, by an independent outside body. | |
| "It is depressing to keep hearing [MPs] saying 'well, it's the system that was wrong and we are changing the system'. | |
| "The question you have to ask is who devised the system? MPs devised the system under their self-regulating arrangements and that's what must change for the future." |