Expenses to be repaid after party's scrutiny panel concludes investigation

Conservative MPs are set to pay back £250,000 in expenses following a review of claims made by the party’s scrutiny panel.

The panel, set up by David Cameron after the details of all MPs’ expenses were leaked to the Daily Telegraph, has now investigated the claims made by all Tory MPs. A comprehensive list of those required to repay expenses will be published this afternoon. MPs already found to have made excessive claims have agreed to pay back around £125,000.

The panel, which included the chief whip, Patrick McLoughlin, and Ed Llewellyn, Cameron’s chief of staff, has been criticised by some Tories for its lack of transparency and fairness.

But before a speech today, Cameron, who has agreed to pay back nearly £1,000, said that Conservative MPs had "responded to the work of the scrutiny panel in an “overwhelmingly positive way”.

“This is not about MPs that broke the rules. We all know that the rules were not good enough,” he said.

“This is about understanding the level of public anger. It is not good enough just to sort out the rules for the future. We need to recognise and in some way atone for the mistakes of the past.”

Cameron promised that the list published would be more comprehensive than that published by the parliamentary authorities. The Commons list revealed that MPs from all parties had paid back £500,000 in expenses but did not say what the claims had covered.

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