HILARY ARMSTRONG became the latest MP to repay expenses to the Commons fees office when she paid back £5,000 she had claimed for food over three years.

Until recently, all MPs were permitted to claim up to £400 a month without providing receipts, one of the biggest criticisms of the lax expenses regime.

Ms Armstrong, the Durham North-West MP and former chief whip, claimed far less than that – about £150 a month – but decided to pay it back because it weighed on her conscience.

The MP said: “We were all allowed to claim for food without putting in any receipts, but my conscience told me that was not the right thing to do.

“I decided that I am in a very privileged position as an MP and I could afford to pay that money back, although it hasn’t made me very popular with some of my colleagues.

“I am absolutely fastidious in my expenses claims and I have not claimed for half of what I was entitled to.”

Ms Armstrong said she intended to publish every receipt, for every expenses claim, on her website within the next few days, for all her constituents to view.

Revealing her despair at the public’s anger at politicians, Ms Armstrong said: “If this goes on much longer, then we won’t have any politicians left.”