Search: Anthony Steen expenses row
A Tory backbencher has launched an extraordinary attack on the Government for forcing him to quit - insisting it should never have let the public see what he was claiming on expenses.
Totnes MP Anthony Steen, who spent nearly £90,000 on his second home over four years, said ministers had "mucked up the system" at Westminster by introducing the Freedom of Information Act.
He also suggested his critics were "jealous" because he lived in a large house that resembled royal residence Balmoral, and had trees in the grounds that needed lopping.
The comments came amid signs of a backlash by MPs against the continuing stream of revelations that have brought their reputation to its lowest in living memory.
Conservative MP Nadine Dorries warned there was so much pressure on parliamentarians that suicides could follow. "The atmosphere in Westminster is unbearable," the Mid Bedfordshire MP wrote on her blog. "People are constantly checking to see if others are okay. Everyone fears a suicide. If someone isn't seen, offices are called and checked.
"All because this country has never had a Prime Minister with the political courage to stand up to the British media, and award MPs the pay rise proposed year after year by the Senior Salary Review Board."
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Mr Steen, who will stand down at the next general election, insisted his behaviour was "impeccable" and he had merely been "caught on the wrong foot".
"As far as I am concerned and as of this day I don't know what the fuss is about," he told The World at One.
"We have a wretched Government here which has completely mucked up the system and caused the resignation of me and many others, because it was this Government that introduced the Freedom of Information Act and it is this Government that insisted on the things which caught me on the wrong foot. What right does the public have to interfere with my private life? None."
He likened the events of the past two weeks to an episode of Coronation Street, with MPs waiting by the telephones between 3pm and 4pm to find out if they were going to feature in the next day's edition of The Daily Telegraph. "That's the time the Prime Minister used to ring you if you were going to get a job. Now it's a question of whether The Daily Telegraph's going to ring you because that's the time they ring you."
