Ben Miller to turn MPs expenses scandal into West End stage show The Duck House

Actor Ben Miller is to star in a new West End production ridiculing the Parliamentary expenses scandal which led to a number of MPs being jailed.

The comedy - entitled The Duck House - also features former X Factor contestant Diana Vickers, who has gone on to have a chart and stage career.

Miller, whose roles have included BBC1 drama Death In Paradise and The Armstrong And Miller Show, will appear in the production at London's Vaudeville Theatre from December 10.

The scandal erupted four years ago when the Daily Telegraph published a series of expenses claims made by MPs which showed abuses of allowances for second homes, as well as payments for the cleaning of a moat and the cost of an island for ducks.

The revelations led to MPs being suspended and standing down from their seats, as well as several being given custodial sentences for false accounting, including Jim Devine and Elliot Morley.

Miller said: "They say that comedy equals tragedy plus time, and traumatic as the expense scandal was hopefully we can all now have a bloody good laugh about it.

"And if any MPs don't like it they can always claim for it on expenses."

He stars as an MP who is desperately trying to cling on to his seat while Gordon Brown's Government is in meltdown and has already defected from Labour to the Conservative Party. He finds himself in trouble - along with his support team - when public fury erupts over the hundreds of thousands of pounds which MPs have claimed on expenses.

The production has been written by Dan Patterson and Colin Swash, who have previously worked on a number of satirical TV shows.

PA