8:32am Friday 4th July 2008
MPs were facing further outrage over their expenses regime after they rejected calls for the abolition of the "John Lewis list" and independent scrutiny of their claims.
Basildon Labour MP Angela Smith and Southend West Tory MP David Amess voted to retain the £24,000-a-year budget to kit out second homes.
James Duddridge (Con, Rochford and Southend East), Mark Francois (Con, Rayleigh), Andrew Mackinlay (Lab, Thurrock) and John Baron (Con, Billericay) did not vote.
Bon Spink, UKIP MP for Castle Point, voted in both lobbies in effect voting twice. Mr Spink says this is the only way to abstain from a vote.
The House of Commons vote also killed off moves to subject their allowances to external audits following recent scandals.
But MPs approved a new programme to get bigger and better constituency offices at an additional cost to the taxpayer of up to £3.2 million every year.
The package retaining the so-called "John Lewis list" of household items and property improvements was backed mainly by Labour MPs.
They included 33 ministers, including Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham and Housing Minister Caroline Flint.
But more than half of MPs - including Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling - stayed away from the Commons for the contentious vote.
It marked the culmination of a "root and branch" review undertaken by a top Commons committee after the scope for abuse of the £90 million allowances regime was laid bare earlier this year.
Many MPs chastised their colleagues for retaining the "John Lewis list" which has exposed Parliamentarians to endless ridicule and hostility in recent months.
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