Norman Baker’s halo slips as expenses questioned

One of the most unexpected names to be caught up in the expenses saga is the previously whiter-than-white Lib Dem MP for Seaford in Sussex, Norman Baker, who, it has emerged, claimed more than £20,000 for a constituency office in his own home.

The 51-year-old  (pictured) is one of the busiest MPs in the house - and one of the most well regarded by the public - regularly tabling questions and pestering government ministers over accountability and transparency. Since the expenses story broke Baker has become a regular on news programmes and has repeatedly condemned the extravagant claims of other MPs.

Now he has been branded a hypocrite by his political rivals, and Tory MP Julian Lewis, who has clashed with Baker in the past, took great delight describing the Lib Dem as the Commons' "most sanctimonious member".

Baker, though, denies any wrongdoing and says he checked he was not breaking the rules before buying the house in Lewes and making the claims. He admitted claiming roughly £7,500 a year for about three years from 2000.

He told The Argus newspaper in Brighton: "I was entitled to claim money from the taxpayer for the rent of an office," and said that had he not been using the office he could have made money by renting it out commercially. Baker added that when he stopped making the claims in 2003 he was left out of pocket.

It was also reported that he had claims turned down for a bicycle and a computer at the London home he rents.

This week Baker wrote in the Daily Mail: "The standard defence trotted out is that everything done has been within the rules. But that does not make it ethically correct, not least because those rules have been written by MPs themselves." ·