THIS week the South Manchester Reporter reveals details of our MPs’ expense claims.

With allegations of claims including almost £2,000 to import an antique carpet from the US, a TV costing almost £9,000, £248 for an ironing board, iron, bedding and towels, a £300 garden shed, £297 on a new gate, £164 on getting a chimney swept.

One claim for almost £9,000 for a television was rejected by the Commons paymasters – at least one of them expects an angry backlash from his constituents.

Northenden MP Paul Goggins, who spent thousands of pounds of public money on improvement to his two homes, said: "I know my constituents are all angry. All I can do is explain my thinking."

But with parliamentary guidelines banning "extravagances and luxuries" from the public expense sheets he, along with others, may find that difficult to achieve.

Father-of-three Mr Goggins spent £300 on a garden shed, claimed for a £3,000 leather suite after twice ‘flipping’ his second home designation.

He also spent £4,000 switching his constituency office 45ft from the old one but insisted he claimed fairly for "equivalent" replacements when items broke or wore out. He spent £305 per month for the mortgage on his Salford home, about £650 a month for his London mortgage and regularly claimed up to £350 a month for food.

He spent £300 on a garden shed, £297 on a new gate, £184.94 on bedroom furniture, £164.50 to get his chimney swept, £1,000 for rebuilding a wall, plus £2,826 for a new suite, and then after switching his main home back to Salford he refurbished the kitchen at his London address at a cost of £6,398.

Senior Labour politician Gerald Kaufman, MP for Gorton and parts of Levenshulme and Fallowfield, is said to have used £1,851 of taxpayers’ money to export a rug from an antiques centre in New York. The former environment minister, is also alleged to have put in a claim for £28,824 – of which £15,329 was paid – for improvements to his London flat after telling the Commons he was "living in a slum", was knocked back when he asked for £8,865 to buy a television.

Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd, who represents Whalley Range, claimed £154,000 expenses last year on top of his £63,000 salary.

He claimed £19,700 rent for a one-bedroom flat in London, his second home, £23,000 incidental expenses for running his office and £88,000 wages for four staff.

Mr Lloyd claimed £248 for an ironing board, iron, bedding and towels, and he defended the £400-a-month subsistence including food and taxis when on duty. But he was unmerciful over others. He said: "Those MPs who have committed criminal offences should be prosecuted and those guilty of excessive claims should take the personal consequences."

Former McDonald’s employee John Leech, Lib-Dem MP for Withington, Didsbury, Chorlton, and Burnage defended as "reasonable" a claim for a £55 set of Weightwatchers bathroom scales in the Battersea former council flat he owns.

He also claimed £250 for a coffee machine, £500 for a CD system, £39 for a fat-reducing grill and £530 on dry cleaning suits over three years.

Mr Leech – who insists his £8,684 second home allowance claim this year will place him in the bottom five per cent of MPs’ claims – cleans his own flat and does not have a phone line there. His constituency office – furnished with second hand desks – produces its own headed notepaper and his claims for food averaged under £200-a-month.

He said: "If I were to compare myself to other MPs I would say that I am at the less extravagant end in terms of lifestyle."