A LOCAL MP who is reported to have spent £500 on flowers is the latest politician to be named in the on-going expenses debate.

John Greenway, the back-bench Conservative MP for Ryedale, in North Yorkshire, is accused of claiming on his expenses for the plants in a Daily Telegraph report.

The report says Mr Greenway spent £500 on petunias, geraniums, fuchsia and lobelia plants, a rose and a lavender bush for his second home, in south London.

It adds he claimed £1,900 to redecorate the house’s hall, kitchen, bathroom and stairs over 2004-05 and 2005-06.

The Daily Telegraph says he claimed for over £3,500 on household goods and furnishings including a £399 flat screen television set and crockery.

It adds that Mr Greenway filed expenses for cups and saucers worth £44, a £24 lavatory brush, a £30 casserole dish a 59p box of matches; two 99p boxes of firelighters; eight mulled wine sachets; four bags of compost; a trellis and plant food.

The national newspaper adds that Mr Greenway regularly claimed for £400 of food a month.

The Daily Telegraph’s says Mr Greenway bought the south London house for £211,000 and that after its upgrade he sold it in 2006 for £493,000.

Mr Greenway has claimed that he paid capital gains tax when he sold the house and has not claimed any of the moving costs or stamp duty.

He told the Daily Telegraph: "All the claims which I have made over my 22 years in Parliament have been made in good faith and were approved by the fees office without query.

"The pattern of expenditure on my London home over a number of years has reflected precisely the expenditure and living costs that I pay for myself at my main home in North Yorkshire.

"The repairs and redecoration which I claimed for 2004 and 2005 were the first I claimed since buying the house and represent normal wear and tear on the property."

Mr Greenway, who steps down as an MP at the next election, could not be contacted by The Northern Echo.