Like all backbenchers, from all parties, I get paid what many people will think is a huge annual salary – £59,095 to be exact.

And like all MPs, from all parties, I also qualify to claim a mind-boggling array of extras that added up to  £127,865 in the last financial year.

It is YOUR money, so you deserve to know what I’m spending it on. The figures for every MP in the UK will be published by Parliament soon. But I am the first MP in the UK to let people know as soon as I know. There is no secret.

In the past year I have spent £73,620 on staff. I employ a wonderfully efficient secretary, who keeps the wheels oiled properly in Bridgwater. I now have additional clerical help in the constituency to deal with the growing weight of correspondence. I also use a researcher in London to keep me briefed and my long-suffering wife Jill is on the payroll too. Since the last financial year's allowances were published (in October 2004) my staffing costs have clearly increased. I believe the workload now being handled justifies the costs. (My son Peter has a security pass for Westminster but is not the recipient of any Parliamentary allowance or salary).

If you ask me to reveal the precise remuneration of each of my employees I will politely reply – sorry, none of your business. The House of Commons voted to declare only the total figure paid out of public funds for total staff costs.

My team are not elected representatives. As private citizens they have the right to decide what to disclose. If they choose to tell you how much they get paid, fair enough. But they all do a very good job.

I also claim expenses for getting to and from the constituency. The House of Commons pays a high rate of mileage – over 50 pence per mile (though this has now been reduced to 40p). IThis year's mileage bill is up too - to over £11,000. The reason is again painfully simple. The more cases there are- the more miles I have to drive. 

Why not take a bike ? Well I could. And even the mileage rate for cycle users is a staggeringly generous 20 pence a mile.

But before your jaw drops right through the floor let me add in a few other “perks”

The system provides financial help with buying a London property (I now own a small ex-council flat in Lambeth as well as my family home in West Somerset. I bought the London flat because it was unfair on my friends in the capital having to tolerate a political lodger four nights every week!)

I could also claim to buy a fridge and a washing machine and a dishwasher and get my dry-cleaning done. I have the right to claim for quite a few basics – including food. In many cases the authorities do not demand proper receipts.

And when I retire I will get a very generous pension. That is a dirty word in itself these days.

I did not invent this system. In fact I think it is a crazy system. MPs themselves should not set their own pensions, salaries and expenses. It should be taken out of our hands. I want to be seen as squeaky clean and I would much rather operate under a system that said – “here you are, here’s a big salary, but NO perks. What you spend is up to you, but don’t expect any extras”

That is why I was the first MP in Britain to publish details of my pay and expenses in 2004. People have the right to know where the money goes. I will be campaigning in Parliament to alter the way such money is allocated, because I think the existing system risks giving all MPs a bad name.

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It is refreshing to know that the national newspapers keep an eye on my website - witness this story about MPs expenses from the Sunday Times, published on October 30th 2005:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1849459,00.html

 

In addition to the annual publication of MPs expenses there is also the Register of Members Interests which lists business, financial or property interests that any MP may have (over and above their salaries as MPs and their homes)  My entry is enticingly sparse: "farm buildings in Scotland". I should, perhaps (for the benefit of those who imagine me as a member of the landed gentry) have added one telling but accurate word: "derelict" ! 

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/041022/memi17.htm