Parliament has published the details of MP expenses including those of Hertsmere MP James Clappison who claimed more than £3,000 on looking after his garden at his second home despite owning 24 houses and a cricket club.

The work and pensions spokesman outraged his constituents after it emerged he had used taxpayers’ money to buy flowers for his £375,000 house in London Colney, Hertfordshire, where he lives with his wife Helen.

Mr Clappison’s main home is in Leeds, which is worth around £360,000 and is registered to his wife. Neither property is mortgaged.

To subsidise his £64,766 MP’s income, he rents out another 22 houses in Patrington, East Yorkshire and Withernsea and owns 27 acres of farmland inherited from his father, who was a farmer.

He also owns the ground of Patrington village cricket club and sits on the club’s committee as “president and proprietor”.

Details of his expenses, seen by the Watford Observer, show that since 2001 he has pocketed £102,241 in second home expenses, including £300 a month for food, £115 a month for a cleaner and £31 a month for cable TV.

He also claimed £3,166 for regular work on his garden since 2004.

Refuting any unlawful claims, Mr Clappison said that he had voluntarily submitted his expenses to the fees office for review in April.

“They found that my claims were not only entirely within the rules but also within the spirit of the rules,” he said.

“The only exception was one claim for £38.50 for bedding plants, which I immediately repaid.

“This was an honest mistake on my part.”

Mr Clappison's reimbursements along with the expenses claims of all MPs have today been published by the commons authorities in response to freedom of information requests.

But much of the detail including the homes the claims relate to have been blacked out for security and privacy reasons.

It would mean that many of the abuses of the expenses system - revealed by the Daily Telegraph after uncensored data was leaked to them - would have gone undetected.

  • To see a breakdown of Mr Clappison's expense claims for the last four years visit http://mpsallowances.parliament.uk/mpslordsandoffices/hocallowances/allowances-by-mp/james-clappison/