Bristol MP 'uncomfortable' about food claims
The Labour MP, who has just been promoted to a junior whip, claimed the full £400 a month on 10 occasions in 2006/07.
She also claimed a further two payments of £200 in the same year, making a total of £4,800 for the 12 months.
The following year, (2007/08), the total dropped to £3,240 with only three claims of the maximum £400.
Ms McCarthy, 44, who won her Bristol seat in 2005, said: "When you get elected, you ask the older hands what you do and they were quite adamant that you should claim for this or that because that's what you were entitled to.
"I think I asked them: 'How on earth do you work out how much you spend on food that you would not have spent if you were cooking for yourself at home?'
"They said I should claim because that's what I was entitled to."
But she said: "I got more and more uncomfortable with it and have gradually claimed less and less."
She said there was now a new system in place which meant you could claim £25 a night for each night you are away from home.
Ms McCarthy, who has several roles including chair of the South West Group of Labour MPs, said she had been shocked by the level of censorship on expenses by the Fees Office at the House of Commons.
She said one of the claims showed a sum of £1,000 without any explanation what the money was for.
She said it was to install a burglar alarm on her one-bed ground floor flat near Westminster which was burgled twice in a month.
She said it was obvious from the second burglary that someone had acquired a key to her flat so she also had the locks changed.
She said she wouldn't want people to know exactly where she lived because she often had to return late at night on her own and she did not live in a very salubrious part of London.
But she didn't mind people knowing – including the burglars – that she had had an alarm fitted.
The Fees Office, however, insisted that the details should be withheld for security reasons.
The published documents also show that she had CCTV cameras and a burglar alarm fitted at a cost of £1,905 in November, 2005 at her Bristol office in Church Road, St George.
She said this was because she wanted to make public where the office was, unlike her predecessor Jean Corston, who preferred to use a PO Box address.
Ms McCarthy spent £4,344 on furnishing her London flat which she bought in 2005.
She said: "I entirely accept there are people who think we should not claim for furniture.
"The difficulty is, though, people in a situation like mine, where we are setting up two homes from scratch, can be very expensive.
"There is a case for newly-elected MPs to have some sort of allowance to cover this because some of them can be in considerable debt by the time they enter Parliament."
She said the problems arose when some MPs decided to look around and find things to buy when they realised they had not used up their allowance.
She said that in subsequent years, her claims for furnishings had been very low. In 2007/08, she only claimed £76.95 for linen and cutlery and £48 for curtains.
She said: "I live on this very busy main road and I thought if I changed the blinds for thick curtains, it might help me to sleep better."
She has repaid £402 after claiming for two beds for her one-bed flat.
But the second bed was never delivered.
She was unable to work out what one item, listed as "double" on an invoice was for.
She has previously told the Evening Post: "In August 2005, I purchased a flat in London and I can only assume that the bed I originally ordered was out of stock and another order was placed but as this was four years ago, I am not sure."
Her total expenses in 2007/08 were £153,035, 215th out of 645 MPs. The previous year, her total was £155,487 which was 345th.
2007/08
Mortgage interest: £13,024
Food: £3,240
Utilities: £253.93
TV licence: £135.50
Council tax: £618.70
Household items (linen etc) £76.95
Curtains: £48
2006/07
Mortgage interest: £11,427
Food: £4,800
Utilities: £502.82
TV licence: £131.50
Council tax: £840
2005/06
Mortgage interest: £8,935
Food: £2,300
Utilities: £259.85
TV licence: £126.50
Council tax: £689
Kerry McCarthy also spent £4,344 in autumn 2005 and spring 2006 on furnishings for her London flat. The breakdown of this sum is as follows:
Habitat corner sofa made up of smaller units: £1,326
Bed: £459
Mattress: £170
TV and DVD: £604
Clothes rail and hangers: £55
Bath tidy: £17.50
Two cushions: £79
Three sets of drawers: £709
Bedding: £47
Picture frames: £42
Two tables: £397
Lamps: £35
Chair: £198
Rug: £130
Linen and cutlery: £76
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