MP claims over £4,000 a year for food
Mr Norris claimed between £4,000 and the maximum of £4,800 over the past four years, averaging out at £4,310 a year.
The single 49-year-old, who entered Parliament in May 1997, also claimed for a mattress worth £493.50, mower, strimmer and safety plug at a combined total of £125 and a £129 radio.
And he often claimed the maximum of £250 for petty cash almost every month as part of incidental expenses incurred for running his office.
He also claimed £396.61 for a plush Dr Bott computer carry case to protect his laptop.
Mr Norris, MP for North East Somerset, made Minister for Rural Affairs and Environment earlier this month, was one of the first MPs to publish his expenses online.
He was also one of just 25 MPs out of 646 who voted for Freedom of Information laws to apply to MPs' allowances when the issue was debated at Parliament in May 2007.
MPs are allowed to claim a maximum of £400 a month on food but do not need to produce receipts for their claims.
Mr Norris, who earns £64,766 a year, said his high food bills were down to his constant travelling.
Mr Norris said: "I'm proud of having had the highest voting record of any MP in the UK – attending 97.6 per cent of Commons votes – before being appointed as an aide to Peter Hain in Northern Ireland.
"At the time of the Northern Ireland peace process, working closely with Peter Hain, I was moving at often zero notice, forced to eat away from home and live and work in three different places. That is a very expensive way to live, often hanging around airports and stations or in hotels where key meetings are taking place. As any family man or woman who takes their children out for a day trip knows, it is not cheap to eat out – whether it be in Bristol, Belfast or Westminster.
"My workload in North East Somerset is equally as high as my voting record in Parliament. I have always held at least twice-weekly face-to-face advice surgeries – and frequent informal constituent coffee mornings – more than any other West Country MP.
As a hard-working MP, it means I am rarely at home to prepare meals. When you go into politics you accept you give up a 'normal' home life. But just because your job forces you to travel all the time, you do still have to eat, even if you are then unable to budget for food in the most cost-effective way, like normal families."
Defending his purchase of a mattress, mower, strimmer and safety plug Mr Norris added: "Few taxpayers would think it sensible to pay for MPs to ferry a lawnmower between Westminster and the West Country whenever the grass needed cutting at either end. Most would expect an MP not to let their garden run wild provided it was just the most basic maintenance and they spent the least possible to do the job. I therefore bought a cheap mower, strimmer and safety plug and got on with it myself.
"Similarly, most members of the public would understand it is necessary for MPs to sleep on a mattress, for example, and to monitor news while they are away from the area they represent."
Mr Norris said he bought a secure computer case following an attack by pro-hunt supporters which saw his insurance premiums rocket, therefore making it cheaper to do this than have a regular case and pay higher premiums.
And on petty cash he added: "What you will not see in any of my published receipts are the 'expected' bills relating to office-running costs, such as utility bills, for example. If I were to claim for these office-related things through these channels, it would mean the address of my office would have to be identified – unlike MPs' domestic addresses these office locations are not 'automatically' redacted from published data. I am not prepared for this to happen because of my commitment to protecting my staff and because I'm also entitled to be safe."
He concluded: "I am not prepared to defend an expense system that I think is wrong and outdated. The reason I'm such a strong Freedom of Information supporter is because I believe greater openness and public awareness is the only way to bring about the changes needed. Until the flawed system changes all MPs are stuck with using it and compromised by it."
Dan Norris's expenses:
2004-2005
Mortgage: £9,073.66
Food: £4,800
Utilities: £250
2005-2006
Mortgage: £6,900.83
Food: £4,437.69
Utilities: £1,688.01
2006-2007
Mortgage: £7,397.60
Food: £4,000
Utilities: £1,617.30
2007-2008
Mortgage: £9,062.63
Food: £4,000
Utilities: £1,928.01
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