**Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is among MPs being asked to repay money after an independent audit of all MPs’ expenses claims since 2004.**Mr Clegg has been asked to repay £910 of the £3,900 he claimed for gardening between July 2006 and March 2009.
It was within the rules but auditor Sir Thomas Legg believes £1,000 a year is sufficient to cover gardening. Mr Clegg says he will repay the £910.
All MPs are getting letters about their expenses claims from Sir Thomas.
Some will be told their expenses presented no issues, others will be asked for more information and many are expected to be asked to repay money.
‘No quibbling’
Earlier Mr Clegg told the BBC MPs should pay up if asked to do so: "The last thing MPs should be doing … is quibbling, questioning, trying to drag their heels.
“Let’s move on, co-operate with Sir Thomas Legg, pay money back that needs to be paid back.”
The BBC understands that Conservative leader David Cameron has been asked by Sir Thomas to provide more information about mortgage payments for which he over-claimed in 2006.
EXPENSES BACKGROUND
- MPs are allowed to claim expenses for running a second home but there was much uproar in May when receipts and details of what they had been claiming for were leaked to a newspaper. Among them were claims for expensive TVs and furniture, MPs who claimed for more than one property by “flipping” the designated second home and others who over-claimed for mortgages or services.
Many MPs have announced they will be standing down, some have already repaid claims in response to constituents’ anger.
Party leaders pledged to change the system and an independent review is due to make its recommendations this month.
The PM also asked an independent auditor to go over past claims again, to ensure money had been paid out properly.
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He has already repaid £218 after he over-claimed when he changed his mortgage between August and October of that year. It is understood he has been asked for a specific mortgage interest statement relating to that period.
Commons Speaker John Bercow has written to all MPs urging them to co-operate fully, amid reports many MPs plan to defy recommendations to repay claims that were cleared at the time.
Sir Thomas, whose final report is expected in December, does not have the power to demand that they repay money.
His report will go to the Commons’ Members Estimate Committee which will decide whether to order its recommendations be carried out.
But Sir Stuart Bell, who sits on the estimate committee, told the BBC on Sunday that Sir Thomas had been asked to carry out a review “in accordance with the rules at the time and the standards that applied at the time over the past five years”.
“I think many MPs, if they read the newspapers, may feel [Sir Thomas] is not staying within that remit, he’s not respecting the decisions that were made by the Fees Office in accordance with the rules at the time.”
‘Discredited system’
Sir Thomas was asked to scrutinise all MPs’ claims after details of what they had been claiming under their second homes allowance and others were leaked and published by the Daily Telegraph in May.
The BBC understands he has set retrospective limits for some items and annual limits on what he believes they should have claimed - including £1,000 a year for gardening and £2,000 for cleaning.
Speaking on GMTV on Monday, the prime minister said he would repay money if asked to do so and recommended other MPs do the same.
FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME
“We’ve got to consign the old discredited system to the dustbin of history, this is part of the process of doing so,” Gordon Brown said.
"Sir Thomas Legg will make recommendations, people have the chance to look at what he says.
“And then my advice to people is… [if] he says you’ve got to repay, let’s get it done, let’s get it sorted out and let’s get it back to a system that people have confidence in.”
Conservative leader David Cameron added: "Every MP has got to take part in this. This is a very important part of cleaning up our politics, sorting out the mess of the House of Commons, so everyone should take part.
“Everyone should respond to these letters, respond to the inquiries that are being made - and, of course at the end of this process, then everyone will have to comply with what the authorities are asking.”
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said “on one level” he could understand the reaction as MPs had “honestly and fairly” made claims within the rules as they existed at the time.
“For somebody who they thought was being appointed as an auditor but is in a sense rewriting the rules… many MPs will feel today [that it is] desperately unfair,” he said.
“But I think they also have to understand where public opinion is on this and, in order to bring closure to this, I think MPs will need to bite on this particular bullet, however painful.”
Expenses approved by the Fees Office have been questioned since details of the claims broke and the old system is widely agreed to have been discredited.