LEIGH CLAIMS MORE THAN £100,000

The Conservative member - who heads up the Committee of Public Accounts - received 116,446 on top of his salary of 57,485.

Among the expenses was 20,333 in additional costs allowance - cash allowing members living outside London to stay overnight when in Parliament - and 18,799 of incidental expenses, to cover costs such as office and surgery accommodation.

But figures released last week showed the average expense claimed by MPs topped 118,000 for the period April 2003 to March 2004.

And Mr Leigh's agent Martin Vickers told the Standard it was important to make clear expenses did not just go to the Tory MP. An allowance of 62,781 was claimed to pay a staff of four as well as 12,383 to cover travel expenses.

He said: "All I would say is it needs to be made clear that it goes to his staff - including payment of their salaries.

"I am sure Mr Leigh's constituency will also be mindful of the fact that because he represents a large rural constituency, it obviously entails more travelling within the locality than if you represented Lincoln and Scunthorpe."

The House of Commons Committee decided to publish amounts paid out for housing, constituency offices, staff, travel, computers and other items to encourage greater transparency in central Government.

But MPs drew criticism after it was revealed they were claiming a total of 78m in allowances - an increase of more than 20m in two years.

However commission spokesman Sir Archy Kirkwood, a Liberal Democrats MP, moved to stave of criticism insisting all 659 members needed the money to carry out their jobs.

He said: "They now deal with issues and communicate in ways unheard of a few years ago. They require more back-up staff, more computer resources, and more allowances to enable them to travel back and forth to Parliament, living away from home for days at a time, while keeping in touch with the problems and issues of their constituents."