Macclesfield MP Sir Nicholas Winterton has defended his controversial attack against the new MP expenses culture banning claims for first class rail travel.

Speaking on a heated radio phone-in this morning, he told furious callers 'a totally different type of people travel standard class'.

Macclesfield's ever-controversial MP also said rail passengers who did not travel by business or first class had 'a different outlook on life' and 'different status'.

Sir Nick, 71, said: "MPs for as long as I can remember have been travelling first class and I can see no reason to change that situation."

Sir Nick, who has claimed among the least expenses in Parliament in recent years, said commuters in standard class might read a book but he doubted they would be undertaking the 'serious work' of an MP like reading reports.

The public were not always right in their views and in this case were wrong, he added.

He had previously criticised the £1.1 million cost of an audit of MPs' expenses by Sir Thomas Legg, describing the former mandarin's salary for chairing the review as"megabucks".

The Conservatives distanced themselves from Sir Nicholas' comments today.
 
A party spokeman said his words were 'the out-of-touch views of a soon-to-retire backbench MP'.
 
The spokesman said: "David Cameron has made clear his support of the reforms of Parliament and MPs expenses. 

Out of touch 

"These comments today are the out of touch views of a soon to retire backbench MP. 

"They do not in any way represent the views of David Cameron or that of the Conservative party and should be treated as such.”

The Conservative MP had to repay £850 when the Legg Inquiry discovered he had been overpaid for council tax bills on his second home. He has also been criticised for claiming parliamentary allowances with his MP wife Ann Winterton for rent of £20,000 a year on a flat they transferred to a family trust when they paid off the mortgage.

In an interview with Total Politics magazine, Sir Nicholas claimed the Commons "reforms" being introduced in the wake of the expenses scandal will "make things much worse".

He said: "They want to stop Members of Parliament travelling first class. That puts us below local councillors and officers of local government. They all travel first class. Majors in the Army travel first class. So we are supposed to stand when there are no seats. I'm sorry, it infuriates me."

Sir Nicholas, who has been in the Commons for 39 years, said he is now looking forward to standing down as an MP at the coming election.

He complained that in previous years MPs were told they did not have to account for how they spent their allowances.

Discretion

"When I came in, in 1971, the head of the Fees Office, as it was known then, said to me, 'Mr Winterton, these are your expenses and allowances'. He said, 'This is the figure. If you spend a pound over it, you won't get that pound back but you can spend that allowance how you like. It is there for you to spend at your discretion'. Now, retrospectively, they are seeking to justify members providing a full explanation going back five years. I can't go back 12 months, let alone five years."

He also took a swipe at the money spent on Sir Thomas' review: "The man is raking it in. Do you know how much he has earned for chairing the review? He has earned so far £142,000. And the actual cost of the review is currently over £1.1 million. These are megabucks."

The 71-year-old said: "Parliament is going to become a house of career politicians. They are anything but professional. The people who increasingly dominate this house are people who are intelligent but they go from school to university, university to researcher, researcher to adviser, then to candidate.

"They have no experience of life outside. Have they ever paid wages at the end of the week? Have they ever been through negotiations over a business deal? Have they been in the law? No."