14/02/2007

MPs travel claims laid bare

It may have taken an expensive two-year court battle, the cost of which has yet to be ascertained, but MPs claims for travel expenses have been laid bare.

The details of the expenses claims, which Lib Dem MP Norman Baker has campaigned to have made public have finally been revealed.

MPs spent almost £87 million on constituency related claims for offices and travel. Of this £2 million was on cars, £1.5 million on trains and £1 million on flights.

Scottish MPs and those from Northern Ireland were not surprisingly among the biggest spenders.

Falkirk's Labour MP Eric Joyce claimed £44,985 while Orkney's Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael claimed £38,750. However, Labour MP Janet Anderson claimed £16,612 for car journeys - equivalent to arounf 60,000 miles of constituency business miles.

Despite some high profile press opportunities for cycling to work, notably by Conservative leader David Cameron, few MPs claimed their 20 pence-a-mile expenses for cycling.

The House of Commons had resisted pressure to reveal the extent and details of MPs travel claims.

The House of Commons, which had argued that releasing the travel details would be a breach of data security legislation, lost two appeals prior to the publication of the details.

The cost of this legal battle has not been disclosed.

(SP/CD)

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