MP's expenses revealed » Central Government » 24dash.com

Details of the expenses claims of prominent MPs including Gordon Brown and David Cameron were made public today after Commons authorities gave up a three-year £100,000 legal battle to keep them secret.

Around 450 documents relating to 14 MPs were handed over to the media by the House of Commons Members Estimate Committee, chaired by Speaker Michael Martin, which decided on Monday not to appeal against a High Court ruling that they should be released.

The boxfuls of papers contain full documentation - including receipts and invoices - of the MPs' claims under the Additional Cost Allowance, which covers the expense of running a second home while living away from their constituencies on parliamentary business.

The Commons authorities opposed their release on the grounds that it would inevitably result in the private addresses of the MPs becoming public, putting their security at risk, but last week the High Court backed an Information Tribunal ruling that they must be handed over.

The MPs whose detailed expense claims were revealed in the document were: Gordon Brown; Tony Blair; David Cameron; Sir Menzies Campbell; George Osborne; John Prescott; George Galloway; Margaret Beckett; William Hague and Mark Oaten.

Members of Parliament targeted in the three separate FOI requests covering a number of different years were: Peter Mandelson; Barbara Follett; Alan Keen; Ann Keen and John Wilkinson.

Certain sensitive details on the original documents - including the address of Mr Brown's constituency home and Mr Cameron's mortgage account number - have been blanked out of the photocopies which were made public.

Under the terms of the court ruling, details may be withheld from the public where there are "specific security concerns".

The documents cover a range of years between 2001 and 2006, which were specified in the original requests under the Freedom of Information Act, and do not provide a full set of expenses covering the entire period.

But they give a snapshot of the sort of items for which the MPs claimed allowances under ACA, which Commons rules state should "reimburse Members for necessary costs incurred when staying overnight away from their main home for the purpose of performing parliamentary duties".

The totals claimed were already public knowledge, but today's release gives more detail than ever before on the precise items MPs paid for with the ACA, worth a maximum of £22,110 a year to MPs for constituencies outside central London.

Mr Brown's claims include a Sky TV subscription and television licence, utility and council tax bills and charges for service, insurance and ground rent on an unspecified property.

The then-Chancellor also submitted quarterly bills of £723 for cleaning services and £650 for food in 2005/06 as well as bills totalling more than £9,000 for refurbishment work on his kitchen in 2005 and £1,396 for painting and decorating in 2006.

In 2005, the Commons Validation Officer wrote to the then-Chancellor to ask for an up-to-date mortgage statement in order to permit him to claim back interest, only to receive the reply - signed "SB", probably Mr Brown's wife Sarah - that "there is no mortgage / no mortgage interest claimed".

Barring one small claim for a telephone bill, Mr Cameron's expenses seem to consist only of claims for mortgage interest on his second home.

Then Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed on a range of utility bills in 2005/06, as well as £515.75 for a dishwasher and £50 on servicing an Aga stove in 2002.