DETAILS of MPs' expenses claims were finally published by the House of Commons - but with much of the detail that led to a public outcry blacked out.
The release of tens of thousands of claim forms and receipts on the Parliament website more than a year after the High Court ordered their publication is likely to lead to demands for greater openness.
Click on the links for details of each MP's expenses:
Macclesfield - Nicholas Winterton
It is impossible to identify many of the abuses which came out as a result of the earlier leak of the same material to the Daily Telegraph before crucial details were blacked out, or 'redacted'.
There are no addresses for MPs' homes, meaning it would have been virtually impossible to identify so-called “flipping”, whereby MPs switch the designation of their second properties to maximise their claims.
Also redacted are the names and details of people and companies to whom payments were made using expenses.
Correspondence between MPs and the Commons Fees Office has also been removed.
Today's official publication covers printed documents and receipts relating to MPs' claims between 2004/05 and 2007/08 for a series of parliamentary allowances, but with many personal details redacted.
These include claims under the £24,000-a-year additional costs allowance, which reimburses MPs for the cost of having to maintain a second home while serving at Westminster; the £22,000 incidental expenses provision, which pays for running an office; and the £10,400 communications allowance, which covers the cost of newsletters and websites to inform constituents about their activities, as well as details of expenditure on stationery and postage.
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Fred Appleyard (18/06/2009 at 10:49)
PeteF (18/06/2009 at 12:15)
There must be hundreds of pensioners in this constituency who struggle to find the cash either for a rail card, or a rail ticket. Such indulgence of our MPs - none of whom, of course, has 'done anything wrong' is totally immoral. They have been treated like spoiled children.
Roger Barlow (The prospective Lib Dem candidate) (19/06/2009 at 08:04)
What a contrast with the paperwork the rest of us have to fill in for employers (and especially the government).
Crantock (19/06/2009 at 20:17)
DorothyM, Macclesfield (20/06/2009 at 12:58)
So Sir Nicholas claims £20 for his rail pass, so what. By doing so he will save the coffers much more in reduced rail rail, if he should choose to use it, and I understand that he does on many occasions.
It seems that the main offenders are the Labour party and, in reallity, cabinet ministers in general. The cabinet posts are now being filled by unelected people from the Lords, (should be replaced), who are answerable to no one. You cannot deselect them by voting them out, becasuse, they were never ever voted in.
I agree that the situation is a disgrace but just following rules they made for themselves. It is of note that several Labour M.P.'s are due to be investigated by the Police for alleged criminality. Hmmm.
slinkywizard, Macclesfield (22/06/2009 at 10:11)
People in duck houses should not throw stones.
PeteF (22/06/2009 at 17:42)
I would have thought it was blindingly obvious that this scam has crossed all party lines, with no party at all coming out with any credit.
But even to suggest, somehow, that Winterton is not so bad after all because others were at the same game is a strange logic indeed.
Gedd, Macclesfield (23/06/2009 at 17:07)
I fear that if he won the Lottery and gave it all to you you would moan.
mac moan, macclesfield (23/06/2009 at 22:13)