Parliament has today released the expenses claims of members, including those of St. Albans MP (Conservative) Anne Main. We appear to be paying quite a lot for her St. Albans mortgage, the fees related to initiating that mortgage, food, and her website. She also seems to be paying quite a lot for her blackberry and we paid for a physio to visit her on two ocassions. Some highlights below:

• Between 16/12/07 and 15/01/08 Mrs. Main claimed £1139.02 in mortgage payments, £300 on food, £27.40 on utilities and £464.90 on "service charges". She appears to have claimed just under £1000 per month on her second mortgage, which was reimbursed.

• On 17/11/06 she claimed – and this is a shocker – £4965.80 for legal costs, valuation fee and arrangement fee for her second home

• On 15/11/06 she claimed £400 for food.

• On 10/12/07 £3449.88 was claimed for Stamps (£314), Royal Mail (£1647.63) and MP Services (£2488.25)

• She claimed £79.95 for AOL internet access for 5 months and £95.94 on another ocassion for 6 months.

• On 21 February she was reimbursed for a £55 taxi journey. On another ocassion, she spent £68 on a taxi.

• In March 2008, her share of the costs incurred by the Conservatives constituency office was £300 with an additional £200 for clerical, admin and postage work.

• She's paying £47.16 per month to Cellhire for a Blackberry. She appears to pay £40 a month further in service charges. On 22/08/07 her monthly cellhire bill was £177.10.

• On 10/12/08 she claimed £750 in reimbursement for "mainenance" to Butter Mountain, a Berkhampstead based website agency. On 03/08/07 she claimed £881.25 reimbursements for payment to the same company.

• On 10/12/07 Main paid £228.03 for banners, one of many claim for banners in her file.

• 17/10/07 Main made two payments described as "Newstand", one for £166.30 and another for £170.60. The itemised list of publications show she had subscriptions to the Times, the Guardian, the Mail, the Sun, the Spectator  and the Economist.

• In a claim approved on 14 Feb 2007, Main claimed £115 for "physio @ work"

• On 02/10/06 Main paid £779.03 to put 33,954 inserts in the Herts Advertiser.

The people of St. Albans pay the highest per head income tax in the country. It's obvious that a good chunk of our money has gone to reimburse Mrs. Main and other MPs for costs that many of us would argue are unnecessary.

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