Cameron to repay expenses cash

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - Conservative leader David Cameron, tipped to be the next prime minister, said on Thursday he would repay almost 1,000 pounds in expenses he had mistakenly claimed.

Cameron, who has sought to take the initiative in a long-running expenses scandal affecting all parties, had already said he would pay back a 680-pound maintenance bill. But he promised to repay a further 267.29 pounds mainly relating to mortgage payments in 2006.

"I'm very sorry about making a mistake like this but I think the best thing to do when you discover it is to deal with it as quickly as possible," Cameron told reporters.

MPs from all parties have been tarnished by weeks of disclosures in the Daily Telegraph about claims for everything from dog food and adult films to cleaning a moat and a bathplug.

The scandal has effectively ended the careers of more than a dozen MPs who have said they will not stand at the next general election, due by mid-2010.

The small sums involved in Cameron's case, and his prompt action, looked likely to limit the fallout for him. His announcement came hours after the expense details of all MPs for the past four years were released online, although with some key information blacked out.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party has suffered most from the scandal because it has been in power since 1997 and has failed to clean up a discredited system.

On Wednesday, junior finance minister Kitty Ussher quit little more than a week after rejoining the government following reports that she had avoided tax on the sale of one of her homes. She denied doing anything wrong.