Smash hit

She said David Cameron, who yesterday wrote to the Commons Fees Office volunteering the repayment of £947.29, had “applied a very simple test which is not just did it actually abide by the rules but did it look reasonable to people”.

“I think that’s what all MPs should be doing and should have been doing, not just whether it was within the rules but if it was the sort of thing that would be acceptable to taxpayers,” she said.

Mr Cameron said today that the Shadow Cabinet would publish their un-redacted expenses online from today – blacking out only private information such as phone numbers and bank details.

“I have long argued that transparency is the key factor in restoring trust to our political system,” he said. "The heavily censored publication yesterday of MPs expenses did nothing to improve the reputation of Parliament.”

Despite his pledge to return almost £1,000, the Tory leader did not feature on a list of MPs who have returned money so far, which was published last night by the parliamentary authorities.

The total handed back by MPs in a bid to assuage the anger over the expenses scandal stood just shy of £500,000 last night, but it is currently being updated and is expected to rise later today.

The biggest sums on the list were from Keith Vaz, former Labour minister (£11,306), Jonathan Djanogly, shadow solicitor general (£25,000), Sir Alan Haselhurst, the Tory deputy speaker (£14,574.82) and Barbara Follett, the junior culture minister (£32,976.17).

Among previously unreported repayments was £4,200 handed over by Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary. A spokesman said his rental claims had been within the rules but that the Cabinet Minister had decided to return the money "for the avoidance of doubt".

Labour's former minister Paddy Tipping said the £14,320 he paid back was for home loan interest claimed back for his second home since 2003 when he remortgaged the property to fund improvements.

Nadine Dorries, a Conservative backbencher, claimed today that the scale of public outrage was so great that she had been threatened and had her house vandalised.

The MP for Mid Bedfordshire, who previously warned that the pressure of the row could drive MPs to suicide, wrote on her blog this morning that her patio furniture was smashed in the attack.

“On Wednesday night I arrived back in the constituency to find the furniture on my patio broken to bits. I then received a blog comment which I didn’t post but which read ’nice patio Nadine, or was’.”

She said she would show her unedited expenses receipts to local newspapers, but defended the decision to black out addresses and other “security-sensitive” details from material released by the Commons yesterday.

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