More scandal on the Parliamentary expenses front: Employment Minister Tony McNulty has claimed thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money under the second-home allowance scheme, for a property which is his parents' main home.

This property is just 11 miles from the Commons. Yet McNulty and his wife also live in a house three miles from Westminster, which she owns.

When this situation was exposed, McNulty announced he had stopped claiming it.

He even went so far as to say that MPs, like him, who live within 60 miles of Westminster should be banned from getting the hand-out. What sort of impression does that leave you with?

I am certain McNulty has done nothing wrong. He has, I am sure, stuck to the rules precisely.

But what sort of rules can they be that enable MPs to claim taxpayers' money as though it was going out of fashion?

This example demonstrates, once again, that these rules should be drastically changed to protect the taxpayer from the greed of predatory politicians.

Tory MP Ann Widdecombe has accused the media of conducting a witch-hunt over the astronomical scale of expenses charged by MPs.

She is absolutely right. A witch-hunt is exactly what is needed to winkle out the excesses of expenses claims at Westminster.

But Parliament has been so devious that whenever attempts are made to discover on what, and on what scale, MPs are spending our money, the door is abruptly slammed in our faces.

MPs are continually boasting about what they call "the new transparency" and about "open government".

All those pious remarks go flying out the window as soon as the subject turns to their own spending. This is nothing short of a public scandal.