Alex Salmond has been forced to defend himself after publication of his MP's expenses showed that he was paid a maximum £400 a month for food when the House of Commons was not sitting.

The First Minister found himself embroiled in the row over expenses at Westminster when it emerged that he also claimed £1,700 for food in 2007/08 when he was already Scottish First Minister and when his appearances in the Commons had, of necessity, become more sporadic.

MPs can claim a maximum of £400 per month for food without having to produce receipts. Commons records show the SNP leader claimed the maximum allowance for eight months in 2005/06, a total of £3,200. Included in the total is £800 for August and September 2005 when the Commons was in recess. He was also reimburse over £2,200 for a bed, bed linen, towels and curtains in 2005/06.

The Taxpayers Alliance pressure group said a lot of Mr Salmond's constituents in the Banff and Buchan constituency would expect the First Minister to pay the cash back.

“There is no good reason why the taxpayer should pick up the bill for Mr Salmond's food whether he is in London or in his constituency”, said Mark Wallace of the Alliance.

Last night Mr Salmond, who as well as being MP for Banff and Buchan is also MSP for Gordon, said his Commons expenses had been under the expense limit for three of the four years in question. “Overall, I was £9,000 below the limit of the Additional Cost Allowance”, he said.

He pointed out that in 2005 he furnished an entirely unfurnished rented flat in London for just over £2,000, with “a job lot” of second hand furniture.

“As it was a rented flat, I had no financial interest in it whatever”, he added.

On the question of the food bill, Mr Salmond explained: “In 2007/08, I was in London for around 30 days - in other words the allowance equates to some £40 a day - and I still had a rented flat in London for the first nine months of the year.

“In terms of 2005/06 and the summer recess, MPs still go to London during the recess, and in any case bills incurred during the parliamentary session often fall during that period, for example for Commons dining facilities.”

Mr Salmond has come under pressure, since becoming First Minister in May 2007, to step down as an MP. He earns £80,224 as First Minister as well as £64,766 as an MP and draws one-third of his £56,671 Holyrood salary. However, he donates that third to a trust named after his late mother, Mary, to help community groups in the North-east of Scotland.

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