A LABOUR backbencher has spent tens of thousands of pounds on London hotels - at up to £350 a night - rather than buy a flat in the capital.

Graham Stringer, MP for Manchester Blackley, has never rented or owned property in London during his 11 years in Parliament.

MP's expenses latest

Instead he uses city-centre rooms in London during the week, often having to move his clothes and personal belongings from hotel to hotel.

Mr Stringer claimed a total of £20,042 for 'additional cost allowance' in 2007/08, with about £4,800 of it going on food and most of the rest on hotels. Parliament sat for 165 days that session.

The MP estimates his average hotel bill is between £150 and £200 a night, as he generally stays only three nights a week in London. He said it was better value for the taxpayer than if he had bought a property in the capital.

His total claim for ACA put him 20th out of the 31 MPs in our region. And Mr Stringer will eventually leave the Commons without being able to make a profit on property - unlike colleagues who use the allowance to cover mortgage interest and property for their `second' homes.

The news came after Mr Stringer became one of the first MPs to voluntarily hand over his expense claims to the M.E.N. for scrutiny.

We can also reveal today that Ivan Lewis - MP for Bury South and minister in the Department for International Development - was threatened with court action in June 2007 after failing to pay his gas bill, despite several warning letters.

Mr Lewis also paid consultants more than £7,000 to help arrange a series of `listening events' with his constituents.

The MP, who has four members of staff working from his Prestwich office, hired the services of a Salford company to organise four 'meet and greet' events in February and March last year.

MP's expenses latest

The themed events focused on crime, pensioners, business and 'inter-faith issues'.

Eccles MP Ian Stewart has been claiming £1,400 in mortgage interest on a London home, as well as £400 a month for food. His records - which suggest a frugal lifestyle - include a £500 bill for a three-piece suite and £450 for carpets and a bed in 2004.

Mr Stringer's claims include £349.99 on a Tom Tom satellite navigation system bought from a Manchester electronics superstore, and a number of books including one called Trouble With Physics.

The MP is a member of the Commons' science and technology committee.

His hotel claims, seen by the M.E.N, range from relatively small amounts to more than £350 for a city-centre hotel during the Chelsea Flower Show.

Mr Stringer said last night: "One of the reasons my overall expenses are usually in the bottom quartile of all MPs is because I choose to not purchase a property in London.

"However, from time to time, this means booking at the last minute. And the nature of the London hotel market means that can mean paying top dollar - for instance during the Chelsea Flower Show, or when the North West Main Line goes down." Mr Lewis said his 'listening events', which cost a total of £7,255, were 'an innovative way' of reaching hard-to-get groups.

"I was trying to think of innovative and imaginative ways of reaching out to people in a way that we normally don't do," he said.

"They required the services of a very small management consultancy, which is a local firm employing three people. They were fully-facilitated events and we provided feedback to those who attended afterwards.

MP's expenses latest

"I thought it required professional project managers to oversee. My staff are very pressed for time because of the high case loads they have.

"I am very proud of the work they do and we have a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week approach."

Mr Lewis claimed, over the past four years, between £1,283 and £1,732 a month towards the mortgage interest on his £300,000 Westminster flat. He has also used ACA to cover utility bills, council tax and his TV licence - but not furniture.

Mr Lewis said: "As far as I'm concerned, that is what the second-home allowance is for.

"I think my constituents would not just feel I have played within the rules, but that I have tried to do what I believed to be the right thing.

"Part of having a second home in order to carry out my duties in London was an expectation that there was a subsistence allowance that MPs could and should claim."

The MP's bills show he was threatened with a court order in June 2007 after failing to pay his gas bill, despite several warning letters. Mr Lewis said: "Over the years, everybody, even a Member of Parliament, gets to the red letter stage, and sometimes I have even gone beyond. With small businesses, we do try to pay as quickly as possible."

Mr Stewart said: "MPs do need some allowances and expenses to carry out their duties.

"Like many MPs, I'm feeling very low at the moment because the activities of some colleagues has not helped those of us who have always been transparent and kept within the rules, and the spirit of the rules.

"There is now an onus on all political parties to come together and devise a system which is not only transparent, but is adhered to by all MPs.

"It is important to re-establish confidence between MPs and their constituents."

Reporting team: David Ottewell, Amanda Crook, Yakub Qureshi, Ian Craig, Ian Wylie

MP's expenses latest