Wantage MP Ed Vaizey has spent more than £74,000 of taxpayers’ money to pay for a second home in Oxfordshire since becoming an MP in 2005.

But last night the Tory MP said he had no intention of profiting from the expenditure in the long-term, as he opened up his expenses for scrutiny, following in the footsteps of county MPs Dr Evan Harris, Andrew Smith and Tony Baldry.

Between May 2005 and March 2009, Mr Vaizey claimed £74,623.62 on a rented two-bedroom cottage in Letcombe Bassett and later on a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Sparsholt, which he bought for £300,000 in July 2007.

While renting the £800-a-month cottage, he spent £5,600 on food and £1,580 on cleaners.

He also paid back £2,000 he spent furnishing the property because the furniture he bought was “of higher quality than necessary”.

He said those claims were “an error of judgement” and apologised.

When he bought his house in Sparsholt, Mr Vaizey claimed £10,776 to cover legal fees and stamp duty, as well as £200 on curtains, £658 on a dishwasher and washing machine, and £600 on carpets.

The father-of-two, whose main property is in Shepherd’s Bush, London, said he had never ‘flipped’ the designation of his properties – as some MPs have – and always tried to claim within the spirit of the Additional Costs Allowance for second homes.

He also said he had no intention of profiting from any future sale of his property in Sparsholt.

He said: “I bought the house to live in as an MP.

“I bought a three-bedroom house because we have two children and I have no intention of upgrading the house at any point.

“There are a lot of MPs who have made significant profits and I think it’s wrong.

“If we sell the house we will pay the appropriate capital gains tax and any profit will be returned to the House of Commons.”

Mr Vaizey said he had stopped claiming for food and cleaners two years ago.

He defended the need for Oxfordshire MPs to have two homes and the appropriate financial support to run one of them.But he said he believed MPs should only be allowed to claim for mortgage payments, rent, council tax and utilities to avoid any “creative accounting” in the future.

Mr Vaizey, who claimed to have donated £8,000 of his own money to charity in the last two years, was also keen to dismiss any perception that he was wealthy by birth.

He said: “I haven’t got private money. My dad was in the House of Lords because he was a political supporter of Harold Wilson, not because he had some country estate.”

Mr Vaizey is the last Oxfordshire MP to reveal his expenses ahead of the official publication by the House of Commons in the next few weeks.

Between April 2004 and March 2008, Witney MP and Tory leader David Cameron claimed £85,299, Oxford East MP Andrew Smith £73,869, Oxford West and Abingdon MP Dr Evan Harris £79,618 and Banbury MP Tony Baldry £56,759.

Henley MP Dr John Howell only became an MP last year.