A total of £78m in expenses was claimed by MPs last year, figures released yesterday showed - but the Government insisted this was good value for money.

Details of expenses and allowances paid to MPs for the last three years have been published for the first time.

Last year, the 659 MPs claimed an average of £118,437 each on top of their basic salary of £57,485 and generous pension.

The figure has gone up by £20.56m in only two years. It means the average backbencher gets £175,922 a year, compared with the national average wage of just over £20,000.

At the same time officials recommended increasing MPs' allowances to let them pay their staff more.

The North-East member claiming the most expenses in 2003-04 was Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Ashok Kumar, who received £143,796, closely followed by Darlington's Alan Milburn, with £139,734.

Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed £80,836 - the smallest amount of any of the region's MPs - on top of his £178,922-a-year salary. Those expenses included £15,490 towards the cost of keeping a home in his Sedgefield seat in County Durham.

But Downing Street pointed out that Myrobella, in Trimdon Colliery, is also his working constituency office.

Last year, MPs could claim £18,799 in incidental expenses - mainly office costs - up to £74,985 in staffing costs and 56.1p per mile for the first 20,000 miles a year on Parliamentary business.

Sir Stuart Bell, MP for Middlesbrough, had by far the highest travel expenses bill of any North-East member, claiming £29,570.

MPs also get a pension of up to one-fortieth of their final salary for each year they pay in.

Ministers have appealed for public understanding of the allowances, insisting they are vital for them to carry out their jobs.

But questions are certain to be asked, with MPs taking home 17 times what a full-time worker on the national minimum wage might earn.

The MP claiming most expenses was Labour's Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby), who received £168,889.

Liberal Democrat MP Sir Archy Kirkwood, spokes-man for the House of Commons Commission which approved the publication of the figures, said: "Members now deal with issues, and communicate in ways unheard of a few years ago.

"They require more back-up staff, more computer resources, and more allowances to enable them to travel back and forth to Parliament, living away from home for days at a time, while keeping in touch with the problems and issues of their constituents."