Rule allows MPs to claim expenses without receipts

London: Britain's MPs have ignored public anger over the expenses system by quietly introducing new rules which allow them to claim up to £9,125 (Dh55,137) a year without producing any receipts.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that MPs have devised a scheme allowing them to claim a £25-a-night "subsistence" allowance when staying away from their designated home.

The controversial payments for MPs have been approved despite widespread outrage at unjustified expense claims following the disclosures made by this newspaper.

The allowance, which is almost double the previous £4,800-a-year limit for unreceipted claims, is paid on top of expenses for mortgage interest, rent, council tax and utility bills.

It has been approved without any public announcement or debate in Parliament. Instead, it has been agreed by a small committee of MPs, chaired by new Speaker John Bercow and including Harriet Harman, the Labour Leader of the House and Alan Duncan, the Tory frontbencher.

In the wake of the expenses scandal, Gordon Brown and David Cameron both pledged to clean up the system of parliamentary expenses.

Bercow had campaigned to replace Michael Martin by promising reform and Harman and Duncan had both said that expense claims which were not backed up by receipts would be unacceptable.

However, the new rules state that "no receipts are necessary" for the subsistence payments and that it is "for members to decide" how the money is spent.

MPs will simply have to state how many nights they have spent away from their main home.