MPs’ expenses leaked in fury at lack of Army funds

The mole paid £110,000 for leaking details of MPs' expenses claims was angry at the Government's failure to invest in Britain's armed forces.

The Daily Telegraph said the mole, who has not been named, acted after being involved in the processing of expenses files — at the same time as serving soldiers "moonlighted" at his office as security guards to earn extra money to buy themselves body armour and other equipment. The newspaper said the soldiers' "fury" at the way MPs were "lavishing taxpayers' money on their second homes" led to the decision to leak the data via a middleman.

The account appears in the book No Expenses Spared being published today. A senior Telegraph executive said the paper paid £110,000 for a disc holding the information. The revelations exposed the "flipping" of second homes, expense claims on paid-up mortgages and tax avoidance. Moat cleaning and a duck island were among things for which MPs claimed public money.

One file that "particularly enraged" the employees was Prime Minister Gordon Brown's claim for a £36-a-month Sky TV sports package.

Staff at The Stationery Office "became so agitated they had to be told by managers to calm down" after reading the files, which they had been processing for censorship before publication by Parliament.

The mole said: "It's not easy to watch footage on television news of a coffin draped in a Union Jack then come in to work and see what MPs are taking for themselves. [It] only added to the feeling that the public should know."

Assistant editor Andrew Pierce told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "So far the taxpayer has been reimbursed by MPs £500,000, and there will be more. We were given 24 hours to read that file — it blew our minds." The mole told the newspaper he was angered by politicians who, five months after the scandal broke, "still don't get it".

But Mr Brown said he did not understand the connection between the leak and funds for soldiers.

He told Sky News: "Throughout the period I have been Chancellor and then Prime Minister, I have been determined to make sure that the troops that are serving our country are properly paid."