Andrew MacKay’s future as an MP was in the balance yesterday after a stormy constituency meeting in which he faced repeated calls to resign. Mr MacKay said that he would put himself up for reselection by his local party at the next election. That failed to satisfy many constituents.

Last night John Wick, who was behind the disclosures of MPs’ expenses in The Daily Telegraph, said that he had been compelled to expose a “rotten system”. Paul Goggins, the Northern Ireland Minister, told the newspaper that he would repay cash claimed for a property that he shares with a friend.

In Mr MacKay’s Bracknell constituency 400 people packed into a community centre to question the MP, who resigned as an aide to David Cameron last week after confirming that he had claimed for a second home allowance while his wife, the Bromsgrove Tory MP Julie Kirkbride, claimed it for another property.

He was grilled on his claims, his travel expenses and why he did not have a home in the constituency. The media was banned from the “public meeting”. Mr MacKay admitted that there had been some “very tough questions and some very angry people” at the meeting — but his assertions that he had the support of most of the room were met with cries of “rubbish” by members of the public.

“The guy has got to go,” said Derek Walmsley, 50. “I can’t see how he could win again in Bracknell. We’ve heard all about the duck house. Andrew MacKay is a dead duck.”

Few were satisfied by Mr MacKay’s apology. Some accused him of hiding behind the Fees Office, which had advised him that his expenses were in order. Andy Voller, 58, said: “I don’t think he appreciated what he’s done is unreasonable.”

Richard Crow, 67, said: “It was like a bearpit.” Gbenga Babalola said: “He didn’t have answers to most of the questions. He just made excuses.”

Most people in Bracknell seem to think that he has been a successful constituency MP. “He’s done a good job, but he’s got to go,” said Ashley Hellier.

Patrick McLoughlin, the Conservative Chief Whip and MP for West Derbyshire, also faced the wrath of his constituents last night after revelations that he had claimed £3,000 for new windows and £4,000 to replace an old boiler in his constituency home.

One by one they stood up at a church hall in Ashbourne to berate their MP — the man appointed by Mr Cameron to head the party’s scrutiny committee on Tory MPs expenses — about the “shenanigans of MPs down South”. He was told that there turned out to be two worlds: that inhabited by ordinary people and the more privileged one enjoyed at Westminster.

People were especially scathing about Anthony Steen, the Tory MP who had claimed that his critics were simply jealous of his very large house. This “idiot”, suggested several humble party workers, would cost votes in the council and European elections.

Mr McLoughlin agreed that Mr Steen’s behaviour had been “stupid, ridiculous and beyond belief” but tried to counter that he had served the country well over decades in Parliament. Hecklers suggested otherwise.

Backed into a corner Mr Loughlin said: “I have loved the job and I have always really felt it was an honour and a privilege to be an MP. For the past three weeks I have felt as sick as a dog most evenings. Yes, I have some culpability as well. We all have.”

For the past three years Mr Goggins has claimed the full mortgage interest, council tax and utility bills on his designated second property in southeast London. He did not tell the Fees Office that he shared it with Chris Bain, a charity director, who lived there rent-free. They admitted that the arrangement was no longer appropriate and that they would repay a large amount.

Meanwhile, the Tory MP for Huntingdon, the millionaire Shadow Business Minister Jonathan Djanogly, has agreed to repay £25,000 after claiming £13,962 for cleaning and £12,951 for gardening at his constituency home in four years. He also claimed £4,936 for automatic gates because of security fears after he helped constituents linked to Huntingdon Life Sciences who had been threatened by animal rights activists.

Mr Wick said of his involvement in the disclosures: “The biggest problem was knowing you had to do something but not knowing how violent the writhing of the snake was going to be.

“We were going to hold on to something at the end and not know how sharp its fangs were. But sometimes you’ve just got to step out.”

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