A Conservative MP has referred himself to parliament's sleaze watchdog after a newspaper reported today he had used expenses to pay consultancy fees of £100,000 to a firm he owned.
David Wilshire, MP for Spelthorne in Surrey, paid Moorlands Research Services, which he owns with his partner, up to £3,250 a month for office assistance, the Daily Telegraphsaid.
In total, the firm was paid £105,000 out of the MP's parliamentary expenses.
Mr Wilshire told the paper the arrangement had been approved by parliamentary officials and that he had not personally profited.
"I am deeply hurt by the way in which the Daily Telegraphhas reported on my expenses and disappointed that it has not published all of my response to their enquiries," he said in a statement. "My constituents are rightly entitled to the truth about these allegations. I have therefore written to the commissioner for standards asking him to conduct an enquiry."
The details come as the scandal over parliamentary expenses continues to rumble on. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron have both promised to get tough on those who fail to repay money requested by independent reviewer Thomas Legg after his probe into MPs' allowances.
However, many MPs are angry that rules have been tightened retrospectively, with lower limits imposed on spending, while Legg had not targeted those who "flipped" the designation of their second home or claimed for non-existent mortgages.
Reuters