THE controversy over parliamentary expenses was reignited tonight after the Daily Telegraph printed details from receipts submitted by members of the Cabinet in support of claims running into thousands of pounds.

According to the Telegraph, the receipts showed Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid his brother for cleaning services, and Justice Secretary Jack Straw had to return overpayments for council tax and mortgage bills.

Although there is no allegation any of the ministers broke parliamentary rules, the report is certain to raise further concerns over MPs' £24,000-a-year second home allowance.

An independent review of MPs expenses due to report by the end of this year is expected to recommend a thorough-going overhaul of the system.

But Mr Brown had to drop his bid to replace the second home allowance with a daily attendance payment after failing to secure all-party support.

Receipts submitted by MPs were due to be published on July 1, after the House of Commons authorities lost a legal battle to keep them secret.

Mr Brown was among 13 ministers whose expense claims were scrutinised by the Telegraph.

Receipts submitted by the Prime Minister to parliamentary authorities between 2004 and 2006 disclosed that he paid his brother Andrew - a senior executive at EDF Energy - £6,577 for cleaning services.

The Prime Minister's office said he shared a cleaner with his brother and reimbursed him for his share of the costs.

It was reported that Mr Straw claimed the full cost of council tax back even though he received a 50 per cent discount from his local authority.

He repaid the money last summer, shortly after a High Court ruling requiring the receipts to be published. Mr Straw also repaid money he was overpaid for his mortgage.

A spokesman for the Justice Secretary said: "Mr Straw takes his responsibilities in relation to claims under the Additional Costs Allowance very seriously.

"Any costs claimed in relation to his home in his Blackburn constituency and time spent in Blackburn have been made entirely in accordance with the rules set by the Commons authorities.

"The claims which have been made relating to significant building and maintenance costs in Blackburn have been made only with the prior approval of the Commons authorities.

"On the claims relating to mortgage interest payments an error arose because the amount of interest declined rapidly towards the end of the mortgage.

"This error was identified by the Commons authorities on information provided by Mr Straw and then repaid.

"It was also Mr Straw himself who spotted errors in the claims for council tax and alerted the authorities. He repaid the difference."

A member of the senior MPs committee which runs the Commons today claimed that the Telegraph appeared to have obtained the details from a leaker. Reports earlier this year suggested that a computer disc containing the receipts was being offered to the media for £300,000.

Middlebrough MP Sir Stuart Bell, who sits on the House of Commons Commission and has called for a reform of the expenses system, said: "If this was received by unauthorised means, it is disgraceful that a national newspaper should stoop so low as to buy information which will be in the public domain in July.

"It undermines the very basis of our democracy and is against all the rules of fair play, rewards thieves or leakers of information who may be in breach of contract and does no service to our democracy."

Benedict Brogan of the Daily Telegraph declined to say how the paper had obtained the information, telling BBC1's Ten OClock News: "One of the great rules about journalism is that you never talk about your sources. What matters is that we've established that this information is reliable and it is certainly in the public interest that we publish it."

He added: "For the first time after years of trying to get this information, Telegraph readers and the general public will have an idea of the systemic abuse of parliamentary allowances that has been going on for years and has grown up out of a system that clearly is no longer suitable for what it's designed to do."