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MPs were braced for a fresh onslaught over their expenses as the long-awaited report naming those parliamentarians ordered to pay back cash to the taxpayer is published.
It is reported that Sir Thomas Legg, the retired mandarin who carried out the review, will criticise a "culture of deference" in which MPs expected their claims to by approved by Commons officials without question.
However, it is understood that his handling of the review will be called into question by the senior judge who has been considering appeals against his rulings.
Sir Paul Kennedy will reject the principle of introducing retrospective rules and limits on claims for items such as gardening and cleaning, according to a source close to the inquiry.
A large proportion of the 80 MPs who appealed against the independent auditor's findings have apparently had repayments either overturned or significantly reduced.
"Many others will now be regretting that they did not fight," the source added.
The rift threatens to undermine the credibility of the audit of claims between 2004/8, which was ordered by Gordon Brown last May in a bid to draw a line under the damaging expenses scandal.
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Sir Paul, a former appeal court judge, is understood to have written a foreword to his section of the report in which he rejects retrospective rules in principle. He also dismisses the idea that MPs should be punished now because claims were "tainted".
The text is said to contrast sharply with the foreword written by Sir Thomas to his part of the review.
They are due to be published together by the House authorities, alongside a list of MPs who have handed back money since the scandal broke last spring.
