Party leaders run gauntlet of seething MPs

Gordon Brown will face David Cameron over the Commons dispatch box today for the first time since the summer break, amid deepening anger from MPs on all sides over demands to repay their expenses.

Both party leaders have insisted that their MPs must co-operate fully with the audit of their second homes allowances carried out by former Whitehall mandarin Sir Thomas Legg.

But with MPs facing bills, in some cases running into thousands of pounds, today's Prime Minister's Questions will take place against a backdrop of barely-suppressed fury.

Many backbenchers are angry at what they regard as the arbitrary manner in which Sir Thomas has retrospectively imposed limits of £2,000 on claims for cleaning and £1,000 for gardening in any one year.

At Westminster there was talk yesterday of a possible legal challenge to his report as both Labour and Tory MPs complained that he had violated the principles of natural justice.

Many are angry that they will not only be hit financially, but that their reputations are being besmirched even though they believed that they were acting within the rules at the time.

But Mr Brown and Mr Cameron are adamant that only by acceding to Sir Thomas's demands can MPs finally hope to draw a line under the expenses scandal which rocked Parliament earlier this year.

Both have threatened tough action against any dissenters in their ranks who will not to toe the line, with Mr Cameron saying he will bar any Tory refusniks from standing at the next election.

The Tories last night disclosed that 11 members of the shadow cabinet had agreed to pay back more than £17,000, with shadow business secretary Ken Clarke topping the list with a bill for £4,733 - although he was still discussing the exact amount he would have to pay.

Three others, including shadow defence secretary Liam Fox, were said to be in discussions with Sir Thomas's office over their claims, while Mr Cameron heads a list of eight shadow ministers who have asked to provide additional information.

Unlike the Conservatives, Labour was not releasing details of its frontbenchers centrally, leaving it to ministers to declare individually how much they had agreed to pay back.

Last night Treasury Chief Secretary Liam Byrne said he was paying back a total of £1,860.54 - including a phone bill which was submitted on the wrong claim form.

At the other end of the scale, Children's Secretary Ed Balls and Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper, who are married, are to repay £13.50 each because of a "miscalculation" of interest on their joint mortgage.

So far, however, no frontbencher from either main party has come close to the £12,415.10 for claims for cleaning and gardening which Mr Brown has been ordered to repay.

There has been deep frustration on the Labour side at the way the expenses issue has re-emerged so dramatically after a summer in which the political debate had appeared to move on to other issues - such as public spending.

While most of the MPs who have spoken out so far are planning to stand down at the general election, among those hoping to carry on many appeared resigned to having to pay up, regardless of how badly they believed they were being treated.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg called today on Sir Thomas to reopen his files for another look at the "worst offences" - including "flipping" the second home allowance and claiming for non-existent mortgages.

Writing in the Telegraph, he said: "I think most people expected the worst offences to come under the toughest scrutiny - MPs who avoided capital gains tax, claimed cash for mortgages that didn't exist or "flipped" their second home so they could claim for renovations on house after house.

"Every single MP who "flipped", avoided capital gains tax or claimed for non-existent mortgages must be forced to repay the money and held to account.

"That's why I am writing to ask (Sir Thomas) to reopen the files with a renewed emphasis on the worst offences."

Labour MP Elliot Morley notably claimed for mortgage interest payments of £16,000 - 18 months after the mortgage was paid off. He repaid the money and announced he was standing down at the next general election.

And former Communities Secretary Hazel Blears wrote out a cheque for £13,332 and famously brandished it on TV after admitting she did not pay capital gains tax on the £45,000 profit from the sale of a flat she designated as a second home.

Mr Clegg - who has repaid £910 of gardening costs - added: "If we want to rebuild faith in politics, there can be no half measures. Only fundamental reform will be enough."

Labour MP Stephen Pound said: "The interesting thing is (Sir Thomas Legg) has imposed the template of morality over all this rather than legality."

He said he was not aware of anybody refusing to cooperate with the auditor, but added that there were some "ugly stirrings in the undergrowth".

Mr Pound, who as an outer London MP chose not to claim the second home allowance, said his colleagues would be "mad" not to accede to Sir Thomas's demands.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he added: "There was a culture of acquisitiveness and avarice which was unforgivable.

"We know that, the question is how on earth do we move forward and get away from that now? And the impression I get, and a lot of MPs get, is that no matter what we do we are simply not going to win back anything like respect from the public because of what we've done, it's so shocking to most people.

"It's a terrifying situation, we've all been tarred with the same brush, we all know it, but at least hopefully paying back the money in many cases, even when it's not absolutely legally necessary, will go some way towards it.

"Sadly I doubt it."

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Theresa May was asked whether it was right to ask MPs who had claimed fees "properly" and had these claims approved by the fees office to pay back money later.

"Sir Thomas Legg has conducted an independent review and I think what MPs need to recognise is that it was an independent review. I think the point is, what we all need to recognise as MPs is the degree of anger out there," she told GMTV.

She added: "I think the question that Sir Thomas Legg has looked at is the system, as indeed we had a scrutiny panel within the Conservative Party and it looked at the system and it didn't just say 'did you meet the rules?'.

"It sort of did the 'smell test' - is what you claimed actually reasonable to the man or woman in the street?"

Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, Norman Baker, accused Sir Thomas of inconsistencies in his audit and claimed the former Whitehall mandarin was letting the "big fish" off the hook.

He told the BBC: "Speaking to three or four other MPs it's clear there are factual inaccuracies in some of the letters, which is of course adding to this toxic mix at the moment."

Mr Baker called for Sir Thomas to make a statement explaining how he was going to take the audit process forward.

He explained: "He needs to answer the question as to why, if it's going to be retrospective and beyond what MPs thought the rules were going to be reinterpreted as, he's concentrating on gardening and cleaning and relatively small matters and not the bigger abuses ...(such as) the house flipping."

He added: "He's been inconsistent in the way he has approached this, he's letting the big fish off the hook and the small fish have been gathered up."

Mr Baker did recommend that MPs pay the money demanded from them.

He said: "If he has recommended payments to be made then they should be made quite frankly, and people should just grin and bear it and swallow the pain if it's a pain for them and they should pay the money back.

"But I also want to make sure that if the small fish are paying the money back, the big fish, who've made in some cases tens of thousands of pounds out of the system, are having to pay that back as well.

"These people who've set up their country estate as their second home and a box room in London somewhere as their main home and they then charge the tax payer vast sums for doing up their country estate, that's clearly very close to fraud."

Anne Begg, Labour MP for Aberdeen South, who was cleared by Sir Thomas, said there was an "understandable feeling" among MPs that the rules had been changed unfairly and retrospectively.

She told BBC Radio Scotland: "On top of which, quite a number of my colleagues are quite upset because they have got letters that haven't given them a clean bill of health - asking for documents that they know they have already provided to the Fees Office.

"That is causing extra stress and upset for them and it's understandable how they feel."