Paul Owen: How some MPs have chosen to defend themselves in the wake of the expenses scandal

Anthony Steen

The Tory MP for Totnes claimed nearly £90,000 over four years for his country home, according to the Telegraph, with the claims including payments for tree surgery, guarding his shrubs against rabbits, maintaining a separate cottage and overhauling his private sewage system.

He said: "I think I behaved, if I may say so, impeccably. I've done nothing criminal, that's the most awful thing, and do you know what it's about? Jealousy.

"I've got a very, very large house. Some people say it looks like Balmoral ... it's a merchant's house of the 19th century. It's not particularly attractive. It just does me nicely ...

"We have a wretched government here which has completely mucked up the system and caused the resignation of me and many others because it was this government that introduced the Freedom of Information Act and it's this government that insisted on things that have actually caught me on the wrong foot, which if I'd been cleverer it wouldn't have done.

"What right does the public have to interfere with my private life? None."

Nadine Dorries

The Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire nominated as her main home a property in which, by her own account, she spends relatively little time, as my colleague Tom Clark explains here.

Referring to the fallout from the Telegraph's revelations, Dorries said: "The atmosphere in Westminster is unbearable.

"People are constantly checking to see if others are OK. Everyone fears a suicide. If someone isn't seen, offices are called and checked ... this has got to a point now where it is almost unbearable for any human being to deal with."

Sir Menzies Campbell

The former leader of the Liberal Democrats hired an interior designer to refurbish his flat in central London, spending nearly £10,000 on scatter cushions, a king-sized bed and a flatscreen television – all at taxpayers' expense, the Telegraph reported.

Asked on BBC1's Question Time if he had ignored expenses guidelines, he said: "They were guidelines.

"The problem was that they were not enforced – that was the difficulty: they should have been enforced. Self-enforcement, I accept that, and enforcement from the House of Commons as well."

Sir Alan Haselhurst

One of the frontrunners to replace Michael Martin as the Commons Speaker charged the taxpayer almost £12,000 for gardening bills at his farmhouse in Essex.

He claimed the public did not understand the necessity of expenses, saying: "For example, people have said to me that I could commute rather than have a flat in London.

But saying: 'Oh, sorry, chaps, I was stuck on a railway line' when the seat was empty just wouldn't cut it."

Linda McDougall, the wife of the Labour MP Austin Mitchell, and Eve Burt, the wife of the Tory MP Alistair Burt

Austin Mitchell had a £1,296 claim for security shutters turned down by the fees office.

He claimed £23,073 for his second home in 2007-2008, according to the Telegraph.

Alistair Burt, a Conservative whip, claimed £1,000 too much in expenses for his rent, but was allowed to keep the money as he had made no claims for food. He claimed £22,322 for his second home in 2007-2008.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the MPs' wives explained the necessity of expenses.

Linda McDougall: There is a lot of work to be done in Grimsby. There's a lot of people who don't have jobs. There's a lot of people who don't have houses.

What Austin would always be trying to do was to get the maximum amount of money to use to get things for his constituents ... [In] central London, where [the presenter] thinks £24,000 is a lot of money ... ask yourself how much it costs to rent a flat.

Eve spends the whole of her money on renting a flat, don't you?

Eve Burt: It's true. Absolutely the whole of the allowance goes on our rent.

Presenter: Could you not rent somewhere smaller?

Burt: We took the option of renting somewhere slightly more expensive within walking distance of parliament so there's no travel costs and we can literally walk to work.