EURO MPs are paid much more than MPs, namely £145,000 a year, plus £36,000 office costs.

Many employ their spouse. They also get a travel allowance, limousine and two chauffeurs.

There is no requirement for receipts for these office or travel expenses, so no proof that the work is done or journeys made.

About 60 MEPs claim 200 euros for nothing each month, signing in for the session in Strasbourg on Fridays even though there isn’t one.

This dodge has cost the European taxpayer 820,000 euros since 2004.

Some 478 MEPs have arranged a notorious second pension for themselves, paid out of office expenses. These payments should be reimbursed from their pay, but no one checks.

In 1997, the Dutch parliament found the scheme to be morally objectionable because it allowed MEPs to “get rich by milking the taxpayer”. The credit crunch has badly hit this scheme, I’m pleased to say.

No room here to mention the bribes to the European Commission and their amazing benefits, unaudited bank accounts or the dodgy EU civil servants – only to say that an MEPs’ five million euro aqua gym has just been connected to the European Parliament, paid for by you.

Charlotte Bull, UK Independence Party, Darlington.

MPs’ EXPENSES LABOUR was relieved that some Conservative MPs were also caught with their fingers in the taxpayers’ till, not that this in any way excuses its own outrageous transgressions.

I am reminded in this sordid affair of how, in the terminal years of the last Conservative government, the cries of “Tory sleaze” from the Labour benches were deafening. However, when Labour came to power, any hint of scandal concerning its MPs was dismissed as “a private matter”.

Hypocrisy is nothing new as far as Labour and its supporters are concerned; they prefer smear to debate. Arguments, facts and policies will always take second place to vilifying the Opposition, the Conservatives in particular.

Only recently, the Prime Minister dismissed the overwhelming public support for a General Election by stating that “Tory cuts” would cause chaos.

While this is an admission that he expects to lose the election, the fact that there will be cuts whoever wins was omitted.

I imagine his manifesto will be along the lines of: “Vote Tory and they will close every school and hospital, open workhouses for those dependent on state handouts, only tax immigrants and make every working person unemployed the day after election – just to spite Labour supporters.”

Des More, Darlington.