OXFORD East Labour MP Andrew Smith is pleased to have taken the initiative to make his detailed expenses receipts public.

Mr Smith revealed his claims to the Oxford Mail before they were disclosed by the Daily Telegraph.

On Thursday, detailed expense claims for all MPs were published on the UK Parliament website — and Mr Smith’s appeared to match what he had revealed last month.

Mr Smith, an MP since 1987, said: “I’m pleased the House of Commons has at last published all the details and that they tally with what I told the Oxford Mail four weeks ago.

“When I’ve been out on the doorstep talking with people, a lot of constituents have told me they thought going to the Oxford Mail early on and being upfront was the right thing to do and I am glad I did.

“I have also had quite a few supportive letters, emails and messages, from political opponents as well as supporters.”

Mr Smith, 57, whose main home is in Flaxfield Road, Blackbird Leys, claimed £73,869 in expenses for his second home in South London – a three-bedroom property in Lambeth – between April 2004 and March 2008.

He claimed £22,277 for paying off the interest on his mortgage and £8,960 on food.

He also spent more than £30,000 on repairs, including £5,650 in his London home’s bathroom, £8,115 on the kitchen, £4,694 on a boiler and £853 on curtains. His utilities bills topped £3,000.

Receipts showed Mr Smith claimed for items including a £19.98 toilet seat from B&Q, a £3.49 low energy bulb from Silvester’s hardware store in East Oxford and a £3.99 broom and 68p bottle of wasing-up liquid from Wilkinsons.

But Mr Smith, who is paid an annual salary of £64,766 as a backbench MP, said all the items were either for his second home or office and were within the rules.

He added: “Before this all blew up, I called on the floor of the Commons and in writing to the Leader of the House for MPs’ expenses and pay to be determined and audited totally independently of MPs.”

Last month, Mr Smith admitted making three wrongful claims between 2004 and 2008, all of which he said were accidental and repaid in full when they came to light.

He wrongly claimed £982 for an insurance policy; he failed to pay back a deposit of £472 he claimed on a kitchen work surface, which was never delivered, and he made duplicate claims for telephone and utilities bills amounting to £183.

He added: “MPs of all parties have a big job to earn back public trust. I will do everything I can to that end.”

OXFORD West and Abingdon MP Evan Harris has repaid £4,055 and Wantage MP Ed Vaizey £2,449 following the public outcry over Parliamentary allowances.

Dr Harris, the first Oxfordshire MP to pledge to reveal his expenses claims to the Oxford Mail, said he repaid £4,055 from his 2008/9 allowances, which are not due to be published until the autumn, as he had decided to restrict his claims to mortgage interest, utilities, council tax and service charges.

He said: “All my claims from 2004 to 2008 were legitimate and nothing needed paying back. The total claim for 2008/9, which I have published ahead of time on my website, was less than two thirds of the maximum. I stopped claiming for food subsistence well before this.”

Dr Harris earlier pledged that any profit from the sale of his second home would be returned.

Mr Vaizey, who apologised for using taxpayers' money to buy luxury and antique furniture for his house in Letcombe Bassett just days after insisting he was "fairly comfortable" with his expenses, has repaid £2449.45 for the financial year 2006/7, £449.45 more than the sum he originally pledged to repay.

esimmonds@nqo.com