Sussex MPs' expenses released

We have posted links below to the details of all Sussex MP's expenses which have been published.

We have a team of reporters scouring the details, and any interesting details they come across will be posted here. But as there is so much detail, we are asking for your help. If you spot anything you think needs highlighting, please email news@theargus.co.uk.

Here's what we've found so far (click on the MPs' names to get to the full details on the House of Commons website):

Bognor Regis & Littlehampton - Nick Gibb

A neat and tidy garden would not be at the forefront of most people’s requirements for the needs of their representatives in Westminster.
But for Nick Gibb, the member for Bognor and Littlehampton, horticulture is very important.
He claimed more than £3,400 for gardening work at his former and current homes in West Sussex, according to official records of MPs’ Parliamentary allowances.
One of Mr Gibb’s first claims for gardening, in November 2004 for his former home in Aldwick, near Bognor, was for £256 for “tree and trimming work”, including the planting of a Leylandii tree.
A note from the gardener, reproduced on the receipt, stated: “There is need for more work, trimming and tidying if you wish.
"I’ll wait to hear from you.”
The MP took the gardener’s advice to heart and was soon submitting regular claims to the Commons Fees Office for trimming, strimming, mowing and tidying.
The claims included, in September 2005, £515 for three days’ gardening work and £500 for repairs to his garden fence in April 2006.
Mr Gibb claimed a further £542 for “trimming, strimming and bed work in the back garden” in July 2006, when the gardener noted the presence of a bees’ nest prevented him from trimming “the top of the conifer in front of the shed”.
Additional gardening claims were made for £187 in April 2007 and £401 in July 2007, along with more than a dozen smaller claims for similar work.
All of the claims were made under the additional costs allowance, designed to enable MPs to keep a second home to help them carry out their Parliamentary duties.
Mr Gibb, who moved to a house in nearby South Mundham in 2007, also claimed £1,839 for cleaning during the fouryear period, £2,136 for redecoration and plaster works in February 2006 and £779 the following month for bedroom carpets.
His largest home improvement claim was for £3,613, in May 2004, to refix hinges, adjust the sashes on his bedroom window and reglaze four panes.
Mr Gibb followed Tory leader David Cameron’s advice to “fix the roof while the sun is shining”, submitting two major claims for roof maintenance – one for £2,472 in December 2004 to replace 103 clay tiles and fill in gaps in the chimney – and another just four months later to renew roofing sheets and paint, at a cost of £428.
One-off claims included £144 to replace a broken front door lock, £179 for bedding and a duvet, £84 for a vacuum cleaner, £55 for a tray and cutlery drawer, £150 for a DVD player and £40 for towels and kitchen utensils.
All these claims came on top of regular payments for mortgage interest, of about £1,800 a month, utilities bills, home insurance and council tax.
The Tory MP’s expenditure under the second homes allowance between 2004-05 and 2007-08 totalled £87,648.
Mr Gibb yesterday accepted public anger at some MPs’ expense claims was “understandable” but insisted all his claims were “not only within the rules but the spirit and letter and principle of the rules”.
Defending his gardening claims he said: “I have a house with a garden and I am too busy to deal with it. I work very hard in my constituency and the only way to stop it growing over with weeds is to have people come in.”
He added that the Leylandii was planted for “security reasons” and said he was “fully behind” moves to tighten up the expenses system.

Brighton Pavilion - David Lepper
Mr Lepper claimed £86.98 for bed linen and towels as part of his second home allowance.
The items, which included towels and sheets, were for use at his London home and were bought between October and December 2007.
He also purchased a £24.99 telephone and answer machine and a £7 clock radio for the same property. Mr Lepper, who announced two years ago that he would retire from Parliament at the next election, claimed £763 a month in rent for the property.
In 2006 he bought a £19.99 kettle which he claimed for as part of his allowance.
Claims were also made for utilities, council tax, phone bills and a television licence but none were made for food.
He claimed among the lowest amounts of second home allowance amongst MPs.

Brighton Kempton - Dr Desmond Turner

Mr Turner claimed up to £450 a month for food. He also claimed mortgage interest payments of £450 a month for his second home, a flat in London.
Additional claims were made for utilities, service charges/maintenance, repairs and security and council tax.
Dr Turner announced in 2006 he was retiring from Parliament at the next election.
He has claimed around half the maximum amount which could be claimed for a second home allowance.

Hove - Celia Barlow
Hove MP Celia Barlow’s finances have previously come under scrutiny after the Daily Telegraph reported her expense claims.
Mrs Barlow has made no second home allowance claims in the past two years but, in the financial year 2005-06, she made renovations to her £550,000 Hove home and claimed moving costs, including stamp duty.
A total of £28,000 was paid by the House of Commons Fees Office despite her telling them the property would become her main home.
In 2006 she was paid £15,042 for renovations, storage and removals.
The renovations included redecorating two bathrooms, with a “high-lustre, silver shower screen” and a whirlpool bath, electrical work and gardening.
She told The Argus: “People are welcome to come and look at my expenses  

Crawley - Laura Moffat
Laura Moffatt, MP for Crawley, gave up her £1,400 a month rented apartment overlooking the Thames for a camp bed in her Westminster office.

Wealden - Charles Hendry
Wealden MP Charles Hendry has defended claiming more than £7,000 on domestic staff for his Sussex home, saying the expenditure was “necessary”.
Regular claims were also made for £500 for fuel oil, more than £1,000 for home insurance and £100 for disposing of effluent from his sewage system.
One-off claims included £80 for electrical repairs, £256 for plumbing repairs, £1,292 for the installation of an oil tank, £75 for asbestos sampling and £200 on pest control, including £63 to tackle a fly infestation.

Bexhill & Battle - Gregory Barker
Last month the Daily Telegraph revealed Greg Barker, MP for Bexhill, made £320,000 after selling a flat which the taxpayer had helped to fund.
Mr Barker bought the £480,000 Chelsea home in 2004 and claimed 315,875 for stamp duty and other costs and £27,928 in mortgage interest payments.
He sold the flat just over two years later for £800,000.
Mr Barker also claimed £2,148 for “curtains and light decorating”.
He has since agreed to repay £10,000.
His spokesman told the Telegraph: “All claims made since 2001 have been entirely legitimate and within the rules and approved by the Fees Office.”

Hastings and Rye - Michael Foster
Hastings and Rye MP Michael Foster, who was appointed Equalities Minister by Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier this month, claimed £250 for a 19in high-definition television, £20 for an amplified indoor aerial and £12.98 for a jug kettle.
He claimed £346 to fix a storage heater, £72 to change a front door lock, £35 for a boiler repair and £40 for electrical work, while billing £20 for bedding, £30 for access to the Parliamentary channel and £22 for a foot rail for a bed.
A claim for £30 in December 2005 – said to be for Christmas tips for staff and cleaners – was “not allowed” by the Fees Office.

Eastbourne - Nigel Waterson
Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson made regular claims of £1,462 a month for mortgage interest on his second home in Beckenham, Kent.

Lewes - Norman Baker
Maverick MP Norman Baker campaigned for members’ expenses to be published in full and, as a result, found himself on the sharp end of House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin’s temper.
The Lewes MP claimed rent on a second home of £1,473 a month.
Utility bills, council tax, telephone bills, television licence and food bills were also claimed for.
Further claims were made for newspapers, up to £24 a month, and in 2006 a claim of £151 was made for furniture removal.
In 2007 he made several monthly claims of £80 for cleaning.
He also claimed £90.47 for repairs to a table and £24.99 for an iron.

Horsham - Francis Maude
Horsham MP Francis Maude, shadow cabinet office minister, claimed almost £35,000 during two years for a mortgage on a London flat a few minutes’ walk from a house he already owned.

Mid Sussex - Nicholas Soames
Nicholas Soames, MP for Mid Sussex, claimed £1,165 a month for second home mortgage payments, £200 for utilities and £100 a month for council tax.

Chichester - Andrew Tyrie
Almost all Chichester MP Andrew Tyrie’s claims were for rent, service charges and fees for his second home, including one for £3,573 for six months’ worth of charges.

Worthing West - Peter Bottomley
Mr Bottomley claimed £6,000 of taxpayers’ money for replacing a set of rotten windows at his second home.
The money was claimed in the financial year 2004-05. In addition, over a five month period from April and August 2007, Mr Bottomley claims included £4,930 in mortgage interest payments, £1,600 in food, £480 cleaning, £474 in service charges and maintenance, £500 was claimed for repairs, maintenance and security.
A further £99 was claimed for a vacuum cleaner. The total costs he claimed for in the period was £10,368.

Shoreham & East Worthing - Tim Loughton
Mr Loughton claimed more than £2,000 in less than a year to power his cooker.
The MP claimed £2194.04 for oil to fuel his Aga range cooker and central heating boiler at his home between April 2007 and February 2008 He claimed up to £1,574 a month for mortgage payments on his second home, which is in his constituency.
One food receipt he submitted included claims for five toothbrushes and two bars of soap, priced at 24p each. His monthly claims for food topped £309 while another claim was for £94.50 from budget supermarket Lidl.

Arundel & South Downs - Nick Herbert

Nick Herbert, MP for Arundel and South Downs, has previously come under fire for second home allowance claims.
In 2006 he bought, along with his partner, a house in Arundel.
The taxpayer paid £10,000 of the £14,700 stamp duty, the £150 valuation fee, £675 for a survey, as well as the £1,893.35 monthly interest charge on the house’s £465,000 mortgage.
The shadow environment secretary has used up almost all of the £22,720 second homes allowance.
Speaking last month, Mr Herbert said: “I have claimed for some of the cost in accordance with the rules which treat partners