£20,000 exes pot: what your MP got

Oldham’s MPs were paid almost £20,000 in expenses, the latest figures have shown.

The information published by Ipsa — the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority — covers claims for second home, travel, office and staff costs between September and October last year.

According to Ipsa, former Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas was paid £3,384.86 including claims totalling £2,200 for rent accommodation, £185 for phone bills and £98.08 for photocopier hire.

Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher claimed £11,534.58 which includes £1,812.50 for business rates, £7,774.32 for office rent, and small payments for electricity and gas, and train fares to the constituency at £43.70.

Ashton MP David Heyes paid out £4,463.30 including a £1,343.33 accommodation rent, £1,300 constituency rent and more than £600 in phone bills and rental. The discrepancies in payouts relate to many MPs not being paid or submitting claims at a later date. Claims of MPs for the two month periods are not comparable to each other given they can claim any time in the year and therefore some periods will be higher than others.

Although a description of each claim was published, Ipsa decided it would be too expensive for it to release copies of individual receipts.

It was that detailed information which allowed some of the previous wrongdoing by MPs to be exposed in revelations which rocked Westminster.

The latest details — the second tranche of payments approved by the body set up to enforce tighter rules on MPs’ use of taxpayers’ cash — signalled a change among both old and new MPs with no repeat of the likes of the extravagant claims made at the height of last year’s expenses scandal.