Cameron would work for 'no money'
Wednesday, 8 July 2009 12:00 AM
By Liz Stephens
David Cameron defended his expenses claims today and said he would do the job for "half the money, twice the money or no money".
Speaking on The Jeremy Vine Show, the Tory leader also denied accusations that he had used the expenses row as a way to get rid of unwanted long-serving "grandees".
"I have tried to behave fairly and robustly with all my MPs," he said.
Mr Cameron himself recently repaid £947.29 in expenses, including £680 in maintenance costs and £267 claimed as a result of "inadvertent error".
"What we have done is not perfect but at least we have paid the money back," he said.
The Tory leader said he had called for future MP's expenses to be published un-redacted.
"I've tried, as a party leader, to be tough, to help clean up the system and to show that the Conservative party, at least, absolutely gets why the public are so damn angry," he said.
Mr Cameron has been a focus of criticism for his mortgage interest claims on his constituency home in Witney, Oxfordshire.
He allegedly paid off the last £75,000 on his London home in 2001, shortly after taking out a £350,000 mortgage on his constituency home.
Although he was within the rules to do this, critics have said the Tory leader could have saved taxpayers money by using the money to pay off part of his constituency mortgage instead.
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