Details of the expenses claims of prominent MPs including Gordon Brown and David Cameron have been made public after Commons authorities gave up a three-year £100,000 legal battle to keep them secret.
Around 450 documents relating to 14 MPs were handed over to the media by the House of Commons Members Estimate Committee, chaired by Speaker Michael Martin, which decided on Monday not to appeal against a High Court ruling that they should be released.
The boxes of papers contain full documentation - including receipts and invoices - of the MPs' claims under the Additional Cost Allowance, which covers the expense of running a second home while living away from their constituencies on parliamentary business.
The Commons authorities opposed their release on the grounds that it would inevitably result in the private addresses of the MPs becoming public, putting their security at risk, but last week the High Court backed an Information Tribunal ruling that they must be handed over.
The MPs whose detailed expense claims were revealed in the document were Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Sir Menzies Campbell, George Osborne, John Prescott, George Galloway, Margaret Beckett, William Hague and Mark Oaten.
Members of Parliament targeted in the three separate FOI requests covering a number of different years were Peter Mandelson, Barbara Follett, Alan Keen, Ann Keen and John Wilkinson.
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