MPs play down expenses date

Shropshire's five MPs today played down reports that they would all be in a position to open up their expenses claims to public scrutiny on June 5.

It has been suggested that they have collaborated to release their claims on that date.

The Shropshire Star understands that subject to the Commons authorities agreeing to the early release of claims ahead of the official July 1 deadline, they had set themselves a target to have the information out by the end of next week.

Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski said he could not speak for the others, but aims to have his claims out by next Friday.

The Tory MP, who is holding a public meeting in his constituency tonight, said: "I aim to put my expenses out by June 5 and will be revealing most of the details later today."

Mark Pritchard, Tory MP for The Wrekin, confirmed he would be releasing his second home allowance claims "well ahead of the official deadline".

North Shropshire Tory MP Owen Paterson also said he hoped to put his claims online by June 5, but it would be at a push with working trips to Northern Ireland and the need to run checks with the Fees Office.

Mr Paterson, who is Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, said: "The quicker we get this out the better. But I don't want to rush through them and end up in a legal muddle."

Telford Labour MP David Wright said he was not in a position to release his full details of expenses for 2004/05 to 2007/08 yet, but was aiming to have them online "as soon as possible".

Ludlow Tory MP Philip Dunne, who does not claim a second home allowance but plans to release details of his taxpayer-funded office allowances, said he was unable to specify when exactly that would be.