MPs' auditor has claims overturned

Tory MP Roger Gale announced that he had been cleared after contesting Sir Thomas Legg's assertion that he had wrongly claimed thousands of pounds.

The Thanet North MP was among 80 who appealed to Sir Paul Kennedy, a former appeal court judge, because they felt that Sir Thomas's demands were unjustified.

Others who have been cleared by Sir Paul include Liberal Democrat frontbencher Jeremy Browne and, reportedly, Labour MP for Keighley Ann Cryer.

Another Labour backbencher, Dennis Skinner, said yesterday that Sir Thomas had offered him an "unreserved apology" after mistakenly asking the veteran Bolsover MP to pay back about 5,000.

Mrs Cryer, the MP for Keighley, said Sir Paul had "radically reduced" the amount she was required to pay, to 1,600.

She said she would be submitting a cheque for the amount on Monday morning.

But she declined to give further details about her case ahead of next Thursday's publication of the Legg review by the Commons authorities.

Mr Gale was ordered last October to hand back around 2,100 for mobile phone bills and 370 in rent for a London flat. He insisted his mobile claims were permissible at the time they were made and that the rent demand was made under the mistaken impression he had double-claimed.