Like all backbenchers, from all parties, I get paid what many people will think is a huge annual salary – from April 1st 2007 the basic sum has been £60,675.

And like all MPs, from all parties, I also qualify to claim a mind-boggling array of extras ..... those controversial expenses that have got some MPs into a big heap of bother.

Well it is YOUR money, so you deserve to know what I’m spending it on. The figures for every MP in the UK are published by Parliament. But I am the first MP in the UK to let people know as soon as I know. I started publishing my expenses on this website three years ago.

In the most recent financial period - to March 2007 - I have spent £78,052 on staff.  I employ a wonderfully efficient secretary, who keeps the wheels oiled properly in Bridgwater. I now have additional clerical help in the constituency to deal with the growing weight of correspondence. I also use a researcher in London to keep me briefed and my long-suffering wife Jill is on the payroll too. She acts as a Constituency Liason Officer keeping in touch with events on the ground while I am at Westminster.

I believe the workload now being handled fully justifies all these costs.

(nb: Two of my three children have researchers' security passes for Westminster. This doesn't mean that I am using them for research work. It is simply a device to enable them to enter the Palace of Westminster when they are in London. MPs spouses automatically get "access" passes. Unfortunately no such system exists for children (maybe it should?) Quite a few MPs put their children down as researchers just to enable them to get in and out of the place. But I don't pay my children a bean out of my Parliamentary allowances. Not a penny. 

If you ask me to reveal the precise remuneration of each of my employees I will politely reply – sorry, none of your business. The House of Commons voted to declare only the figure paid out of public funds for total staff costs. Members of my team are not elected representatives. As private citizens they have the right to decide what to disclose. If they choose to tell you how much they get paid, fair enough. But they all do a very good job.

I also claim expenses for getting to and from the constituency. The House of Commons offers a generous mileage allowance – over 40 pence per mile - (though high mileages get lower rates)  But I have managed to force down my annual bill to  around £7293 this year (ps: I drive a diesel to save public money)

You can examine all the small print by looking at the official document - just click the portcullis

A few other perks you have a right to know about: The system provides financial help with buying a London property (I now own a small ex-council flat in Lambeth as well as my family home in West Somerset. I bought the London flat because it was unfair on my friends in the capital having to tolerate a political lodger four nights every week!) I could also claim to buy a fridge and a washing machine and a dishwasher and get my dry-cleaning done. I have the right to claim for quite a few basics – including food. The authorities did not demand proper receipts until recently. But, from April 1st 2008, I will have to submit proper bills for anything I spend above £25. Quite right too.

And when I retire I will get a very generous pension - which causes some people to think we MPs get far too generous a deal.

BUT.......I did not invent this system. In fact I think it is crazy. MPs themselves should not set their own pensions, salaries and expenses. It should be taken out of our hands. I want to be seen as squeaky clean and I would much rather operate under a system that said – “here you are, here’s a decent salary, but NO perks. What you spend is up to you, but don’t expect any extras”

That is why I was the first MP in Britain to publish details of my pay and expenses in 2004.

People have the right to know where the money goes.

I will campaign to alter the way such money is allocated, because I think the existing system risks giving all MPs a bad name.

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It is refreshing to know that the national newspapers keep an eye on my website - witness this story about MPs expenses from the Sunday Times, published on October 30th 2005:

• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1849459,00.html

The rules about expenses are all contained in a document called The Green Book - 40 pages of it !

In addition to the annual publication of MPs expenses there is also the Register of Members Interests which lists business, financial or property interests that any MP may have (over and above their salaries as MPs and their homes)  My entry is enticingly sparse. Apart from one trip to the USA, I list "farm buildings in Scotland". I should, perhaps (for the benefit of those who imagine me as a member of the landed gentry) have added one telling but accurate word: "derelict" ! 

• http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/080122/memi17.htm