Gordon Brown is to repay £12, 415.10 to the government for expenses claimed in the last five years. The claims, mostly for cleaning and gardening, have been judged excessive by an independent audit.
Downing Street has confirmed that Brown will repay the money in full but outlined in a statement: "Mr Brown's expenses have always been cleared by the House Authorities as entirely consistent with the rules. He has not claimed the maximum level of expenses. The review says its findings 'carry no implication about the conduct or motives of the MPs concerned'.
In a letter to the Prime Minister auditor Sir Thomas Legg outlined the annual allowance for cleaning for the PM should not exceed £2,000 and asked Brown to pay back £10,716 that he claimed over that figure in the last five years. He has also asked that the PM repay £302 he claimed over the £1000 gardening limit and £1,396 decorating expenses that were filed twice "by error".
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has been asked to repay £910 of the £3,900 he claimed for gardening between July 2006 and March 2009.
David Cameron has also received a letter from Sir Thomas asking for documentation to clarify why he needed to repay £218.96 in interest on the mortgage on his constituency home in Oxfordshire. He paid back the money in June, along with about £728 that he had wrongly claimed for an electricity bill and a staff phone laying blame on an "inadvertent administrative error".
Every MP will receive a letter from Sir Thomas, asking for sums to be repaid, requesting more information or putting them in the clear. MP's are entitled to challenge the report's findings and to refuse to pay. Power to enforce the auditor's recommendations will lie with the Commons' Members Estimate Committee.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has said he could understand if MP's find Sir Thomas' report 'desperately unfair' but has urged that for the sake of public opinion they 'bite on this particular bullet'.
