£102 chair and ginger shortbread among MPs' claims (From Bucks Free Press)

£102 chair and ginger shortbread among MPs' claims

4:14pm Thursday 18th June 2009 in News By Oliver Evans

DETAILED expenses claims show Buckinghamshire MPs were paid for items including a £102 chair, almost £20,000 for food and £6,750 petty cash.

Heavily censored claims of four MPs spanning 3,547 pages were released yesterday. All have called for reform of the system since the scandal broke.

Among their claims for the four years are £207,646.62 for rent or mortgage and £19,629.90 for food.

To find your MP's expenses see the link at the bottom of this story. Leave your comments below or email bfpnews@london.newsquest.co.uk.

As already revealed by the Bucks Free Press, Wycombe MP Paul Goodman claimed for items including a cot, stairgate and booster seat.

The full claims show he got also £5,750 for food, £4,913.90 council tax and £4,100 cleaning under the controversial Additional Costs Allowance for second homes.

Yet his mortgage claims for his second home, in High Wycombe, were about half of three other Bucks MPs at £27,389.69. He pays about £600 a month.

Figures also show Mr Goodman – who does not drive - claimed £3,892.80 in taxi fares around the constituency from 2005 to 2008, under the separate Incidental Expenses Provision.

Commons authority censorship of the claims was “excessive”, he said yesterday.

Chesham and Amersham MP Cheryl Gillan’s second home claims included £59,079.56 mortgage costs, £8,450 food and £4,335 cleaning.

Monthly mortgage payments were about £1,500 for her second home in Battersea.

Asked previously why she cannot commute to her constituency home Mrs Gillan said there are times when she “can only manage my commitments by staying overnight”.

The MP – who hit headlines after mistakenly claiming £4.47 in dog food – claimed £6,750 petty cash under IEP.

She claimed £102.95 for a John Lewis “Maharani chair” for her secretary's parliamentary office at home and £998.75 tax return correspondence for 2006.

Mrs Gillan said: "The home in question is my secretary’s home because she works flexible hours to enable her to look after her two children and still carry out a full time job.

"All my staff work flexible hours and work far longer than they are contracted to do because they are responsible and diligent people.

"I believe women with responsibilities should be allowed to have flexible working arrangements and I agreed to provide my secretary with a desk/chair/computer and telephone lines and broadband at her home to enable her to work this way."

Five mounted 10x8 pictures of the MP, for her offices and appearances, cost £275.

Mrs Gillan said the chair was cheaper than those in a catalogue given to MPs and is for her secretary, who works from home. The tax bill referred to her work as an MP, she said.

The petty cash was “similar to any office and cover both the Amersham and London offices and include taxi fares”. This is “normal practice” she said.

Beaconsfield MP Dominic Grieve paid £1,535 mortgage interest a month, totalling £60,742.24 over four years, for a rented cottage near Marlow.

His only other second home claims were £211.50 gardening costs and £1,511 council tax. He did not claim for food or furnishings and only claimed council tax in 2007/08.

Under the IEP, which covers office costs, Mr Grieve gave eight £1,250 and eight £1,500 payments to Beaconsfield Conservatives to use its Aylesbury End HQ as a surgery.

Receipts also show staff have a fondness for 99p Waitrose ginger shortbread and tried £1.99 “Union Coffee Rwanda”, £2.09 Mocha filter coffee and £2.99 Twinnings tea.

Mr Grieve, set to face constituents over expenses tomorrow, said independent advice showed the surgery deal was “extremely good value for money”.

Refreshments were “wholly reasonable”, he said.

Aylesbury MP David Lidington’s full claims were featured in the Free Press on June 5.

These included toiletries – for which £142.21 was paid back to the Commons – and £60,453.13 rent on a second London home.