Two more Tories join Duncan's expenses whine as Cameron puts millionaire MP on probation for 'rations' blunder

By Tim Shipman and Kirsty Walker
Last updated at 11:16 AM on 14th August 2009

David Cameron's bid to avoid another expenses scandal was in disarray last night as two more of his MPs defied public fury over the Westminster gravy train. 

The Tory leader publicly rebuked Alan Duncan, the Shadow Leader of the Commons, for claiming MPs were 'treated like s***' and forced to live 'on rations'.

But Mr Cameron's attempt to draw a line under the affair was derailed by Tory grandee Sir Patrick Cormack. 

Alan Duncan has embarrassed David Cameron with his indiscreet comments over the expenses situation to a campaigner

He complained that his £64,000 salary was not enough to allow him to make donations to charity.

Sir Patrick, who claimed expenses on two homes by designating one as an office, said that 'being a Member of Parliament is an extremely expensive business'.

'One is expected to give liberally to all manner of charities, one is expected to attend all manner of events, one is expected constantly to be putting one's hand into one's pocket,' he added.

High-profile MP Nadine Dorries made things worse by blaming the media rather than politicians for the expenses scandal. She also claimed she recently assisted at a road accident but was too frightened to admit her identity as an MP, such was the public's anger. 

The pair spoke out as a poll carried out by the Conservative Home website found that 90 per cent of members wanted the Shadow Commons Leader to be moved from his post.

Senior officials reacted with exasperation at the latest comments. One said: 'If they are so hacked off there are plenty of people who would like to be MPs instead.'

It came after Mr Duncan - the public face of the Tories on expenses reform - apologised on Wednesday after he was secretly filmed by activist Heydon Prowse declaring that MPs had been left impoverished.

As he returned from a holiday in France, Mr Cameron said: 'I spoke to Alan Duncan yesterday and made it clear in no uncertain terms that when it comes to the mess of expenses, the words we use, just as the actions we take, have got to demonstrate completely that we share the public's real fury at what went on in Parliament.

'Alan made a bad mistake and he has acknowledged that, he has apologised and withdrawn the remarks.'

Controversial: Nadine Dorries MP says she has had to pretend she wasn't one because of the media

Pressure on Mr Cameron to sack Mr Duncan intensified last night, after a poll of 1,600 grassroots Tories by the ConservativeHome website found that nine out of ten want him removed from his current position.

Tory sources stressed that Mr Duncan was 'on probation' after his gaffe but would keep his job - at least until Parliament returns in the autumn. Several members of the Shadow Cabinet declared he would be fired in the next reshuffle.

One said: 'Alan is finished. We cannot have someone like him expressing these views. David is not going to sack anyone in the middle of August.

'But his cards are marked and there is no way he is going to survive the next reshuffle. He has upset too many people and this is the last straw.'

Another senior frontbencher said: 'Alan is an exotic beast with bright plumage. He's good but he will always do that sort of thing because he is a chancer.'

Senior Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell, who sits with Mr Duncan on the House of Commons Commission, which oversees MPs' allowances, described him as 'arrogant and out of touch' and called for him to be fired.

He has written to Speaker John Bercow calling for Mr Duncan to be stripped of his chairmanship of the Commons Audit Committee, which sets the level of expenses.

Miss Dorries, meanwhile, used an interview with Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2 to agree with Mr Duncan that tighter regulation of expenses could lower the calibre of MPs. 'This will be the horrific side effect of what we've just been through,' she said.

Describing how she decided to remain anonymous while assisting at an accident, she said: 'We no longer feel we have the confidence to represent our electorate.'
Incredibly, she blamed the public backlash on 'horrific stories spun in the media that were totally untrue'.

To make matters worse for Mr Cameron, shamed MP Anne Main - who let her daughter live in her taxpayer-funded second home - was last night facing de-selection by party members in St Albans.

Activist with a gift for ridiculing MPs

The man who caught Alan Duncan's expenses grumble on film is a former child star turned political activist who grew up in a £1million townhouse in London's Islington.

Heydon Prowse is part of a growing breed of privately-educated, middle-class activists - such as the prohunting protester Otis Ferry.

The Secret Garden child star Heydon Prowse is now an activist

As well as secretly filming Mr Duncan outside Parliament, Mr Prowse's targets have included Tony Blair.

The 28-year-old leapt over the fence of the Prime Minister's £3.5million home in Connaught Square and glued a brass plaque to a bench.

It read: 'In memory of the hundreds and thousands that died as a result of Tony Blair's "War on Terror" and those tortured with his implicit approval.'

He also lampooned MPs over the expenses scandal, cleaning Barbara Follett's windows for free after it was revealed she was claiming for it at the taxpayers' expense.

He erected a blue 'heritage' plaque outside Jacqui Smith's home to honour her role in the scandal, and dug a pound sign in Mr Duncan's lawn in protest at his £4,000 gardening claims.

The stunts were all filmed and placed on the website of Mr Prowse's magazine, Don't Panic.

They were not his only appearance in front of the camera. As a 12-year-old he starred in Francis Ford Coppola's film The Secret Garden.

But instead of pursuing an acting career, after university he worked on magazines before editing Don't Panic, an 'alternative' arts and culture magazine which has gained a cult following.

Mr Prowse now lives in the East End with his girlfriend and insists he is no 'Islington liberal', saying that middle-aged white people 'seem to be the ones causing the majority of problems in the world'.

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