MPs' expenses claims are revealed

The BBC requested details of six MPs' claims

Commons speaker Michael Martin has released details of top MPs' expenses - including John Prescott's £4,000 food bill and a TV licence for Tony Blair.

The details follow a three-year Freedom of Information (FOI) battle by the BBC, which covers the expenses of six MPs.

Mr Blair's claim of £116 for a TV licence has angered certain groups.

The National Pensioners' Convention said its members will be "furious" and that most people had to wait until they hit 75 before getting a free licence.

Find out which Labour MP claimed £4,000 for food

All six of the MPs covered by the BBC request claimed mortgage interest payments on their second homes and five had their council tax paid.

The expenses date back to 2003/2004 and there is no suggestion that any of the claims were in breach of rules, but they do shed further light on MPs' spending.

Cleaning costs

Of the six MPs, then Conservative leader Michael Howard spent the most on "additional costs" - including mortgages, utility bills, council tax, phone bills, cleaning, food and provisions and household repairs, claiming £20,347.

Pensioners will be furious to learn that the former prime minister was getting his [TV licence] paid for by the taxpayer Neil Duncan-Jordan National Pensioners' Convention Send us your comments

Mr Prescott, deputy prime minister until last year, was next on £20,057, followed by Conservative MP Jonathan Sayeed, who has since stood down, on £18,618.

Mr Blair spent £15,490 and Mr Brown £14,304.

Meanwhile, then Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy's £12,869 additional costs claim all went on mortgage interest payments.

Mr Prescott claimed the most on food and groceries of the six covered by the BBC's request - £4,000 - with Mr Blair the only other MP to claim under this category, for £174.41.

Under the rules, MPs can spend up to £400 a month on groceries.

Mr Blair, prime minister from 1997 until last year, had a £116 for TV licence paid.

Neil Duncan-Jordan, spokesman for the National Pensioners' Convention, predicted there would be anger over Mr Blair having his TV licence paid.

ADDITIONAL COSTS ALLOWANCES 2003/04 Michael Howard - £20,347 John Prescott - £20,057 Jonathan Sayeed - £18,618 Tony Blair - £15,490 Gordon Brown - £14,304 Charles Kennedy - £12,869 Figures supplied by Commons Commission

"Most people have to wait until they reach 75 before they get a free TV licence, and pensioners will be furious to learn that the former prime minister was getting his paid for by the taxpayer," he said.

The figures supplied also include office costs, travel and telephone expenses.

In 2003/04, the maximum amount MPs could claim for on Additional Cost Allowance, for running a second home was £20.902. It is currently £23,083.

The BBC originally made its FOI request in 2005.

But the House of Commons Commission argued that, a detailed breakdown of expenses could expose MPs to a security risk.

However, in January this year the information commissioner ruled that some of the details should be published.

A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office said the information was "clearly a matter of public interest".

Second request

Following a separate FOI request by campaigner Heather Brooke, the House of Commons Commission has also released details of the second home costs of nine senior politicians from 2005/06.

ADDITIONAL COSTS ALLOWANCES 2005/06 George Osborne - £21,533 Margaret Beckett - £21,415 David Cameron - £21,359 Mark Oaten - £21,178 William Hague - £20,071 Gordon Brown - £18,681 John Prescott - £12,825 Sir Menzies Campbell - £11,611 Tony Blair - £8,398.68 Figures supplied by Commons Commission

Conservative leader David Cameron claimed nearly all of his permitted allowance in mortgage interest/rent payments - £21,293 - and did not claim for other items such as council tax, food, cleaning or repairs, the figures show.

Sir Menzies Campbell, then Lib Dem leader, claimed the most for food of the nine MPs that year - £3,700, with John Prescott claiming just over half the amount he did two years earlier - £2,300.

Ms Brooke faces a High Court battle to get a more detailed receipt by receipt breakdown of the costs after the Commons rejected a request by the information commissioner to release them.

The Commons authorities claim releasing details of travel routes and addresses could compromise MPs' security.

Matthew Sinclair, from the TaxPayers' Alliance, said some of the amounts revealed were "really shocking".

He said: "The public will be alarmed to hear that they are paying essentially to keep MPs for large parts of their working years, to cover their food, to cover their council tax and to insulate them from the kind of cost pressures that ordinary people feel."

But Labour MP Ann Cryer said the pursuit of expenses details by journalists was "becoming a witch hunt" and politicians were "all being tarred with the same brush".

She told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: "We are all assumed to be wrong 'uns."

But a Conservative Party spokesman applauded the release of the figures and said all of the party's frontbenchers had been ordered to declare parliamentary claims annually.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman and anti-sleaze campaigner Norman Baker said: "This is public money we are talking about and we have to be accountable for it."

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