MPs’ attempts to keep secret the details of their expenses and allowances has left the taxpayer footing a bill of more than £170,000, a probe by a senior West Midlands MP has revealed today, writes Sunita Patel.

Speaker Michael Martin and the Commons authorities’ failed High Court bid last month to prevent the disclosure of a detailed breakdown of how MPs spend taxpayers’ money on their second homes cost £82,673, plus a court order to pay the £39,363 costs of the other litigants.

In addition, the bill to date to fight other applications under Freedom of Information legislation relating to MPs’ expenses and allowances stands at £48,847 – bringing the total sum to £170,883.

The information was disclosed to MP David Winnick by the House of Commons Commission.

Mr Winnick, a leading opponent of moves to exempt the House of Commons from FOI laws, said: “It is public money that should not have been spent in the first place.

“So the lesson I hope will be that the Commons will not again try in various ways to exempt itself from Freedom of Information legislation,” added the MP for Walsall North.

Three judges ruled the Commons authorities out of order in their challenge to a ruling by the Information Tribunal that opening up the books would be “unlawfully intrusive” into the lives of parliamentarians.

More than one million items documenting the full expense claims for all 647 MPs will be released in the autumn.

By Sunita Patel