“I UNDERSTAND why people are appalled and frankly nobody is more appalled than the MPs. Most did not know anything like this was happening.”

Helen Jones speaks candidly about the horror she feels about the expenses row that has engulfed Westminster with revelations over claims for moats, swimming pools and non existent mortgages.

She added: “Anybody who has been abusing the system or committing fraud should be sacked.

“The Prime Minister has said nobody will serve in the Government and the other party leaders should do the same. There is no point in seeking party political gain here, this is a cross-house issue.”

And she said if the matter was judged to be a criminal offence by the police, then MPs should be as liable to prosecution as members of the public would be.

The Warrington North MP admitted claims made by some MPs, detailed in The Daily Telegraph, were outrageous and those who had extravagant expenses were ‘rogues’.

“I cannot imagine how they got through the system. The claims weren’t being scrutinised by the system,” she said.

Mrs Jones opened her account books to the Warrington Guardian for claims running back to 2004 ahead of the details being made public in July.

Among the claims were a rise in mortgage payments for her second home in London following a flat move in 2004, which had to be made, according to the MP, due to the conditions of the old property, which was above a petrol station. It was bulldozed soon after she had moved out.

She claimed more than £80,000 between 2004 and 2008 on mortgage payments of around £1,400 a month.

“If I wanted to make money, I could have held on for them to be bought out. They are now luxury flats,” she said.

Food expenses sometimes reaching the limit of £400 a month were not for grocery shopping but meals when away from home she added.

The MP said: “Most people get a subsistence allowance with work but this is not to pay for your shopping at Tesco.”

Mrs Jones, who claimed £165,102 in expenses in 2007/8 and ranked 44 out of 645 for most claimed, defended the claims for her staff costs adding that her husband Mike Vobe, who works in her constituency office in Bewsey Street had previously worked for a number of other MPs.

“All my staff are on proper contracts and anyone who knows my office knows they work more than those hours.

“Mike could earn a lot more if he wasn’t working for me.”

Under new legislation MP’s staff will no longer be employed by individual MPs and will be employed by the House of Commons.

Rules have already been changed in the wake of the damning claims with Parliament voting to stop anyone from claiming for a second home who lives within 20 miles of Westminster.

She added: “But we need to accept that MPs have to be away from home for part of the week and we have to find some way of accommodating them.

“I would love a block of flats put in place for MPs when they are elected but the amount of armed police would be so expensive. Those police would be better on the streets of London.”

Mrs Jones is welcoming any constituent to her office to go through her accounts for the past four years.

But the message is very clear to those who believe that MPs should not get any expenses.

“If we say no allowances at all for living in London we are saying only rich people are going to be MPs or people who live in London.

“I do not think that would be good for democracy in the future,” Mrs Jones concluded.

Helen Jones expenses bill Monthly mortgage repayments for London flat average, £1,391 March 2008 sandstone coloured chair, £285 February 2007 washing machine repair, £124 September 2005 curtains, £62.50 May 2004 cooking pot, £44.95 May 2004 bookcase, £79.95 September 2004 Travel Inn and Ibis hotel bills when she was waiting to move into a new property at around £60 a night.