Yesterday we featured a series of responses to questions we asked city and county MPs about expenses.

These were from the Leicestershire politicians whose expenses have not yet been published.

We wrote that Blaby MP Andrew Robathan had failed to respond. However, Mr Robathan said he did send the Mercury an email with his responses.

We are happy to publish them as follows. We asked:

What claims have you made within second home allowances?

Are you concerned that any of them will be will be considered excessive in any way?

What do you think about those MPs whose claims have been shown to be excessive?

What do you think should happen to them?

Mr Robathan responded: “My total claims were £17,000 less than any other MP in the county. My position in the list of all MPs’ total expenses was one of the lowest, 621st out of 645 last year.

“Almost all the amounts claimed under second home allowance, (ACA), were under the category of mortgage interest. All the forms since 2004 will be published by the House authorities on June 10, so everyone will see them, should they wish to.

“The information regarding amounts has been in the public domain for several years and I have claimed almost all the money allocated for Additional Costs Allowance for living away from home.

“Regarding MPs in the press, some may have behaved illegally; this requires investigation and possibly prosecution. Some stories are hotly disputed and may be either foolish behaviour, mistakes or misrepresentation.

“There is no doubting the severity of some of the allegations, nor of the public anger that has been aroused. The system must be changed immediately.

“From this month, all my claims will be published as I make them and the party will look at all past claims to ensure they were beyond reproach.”