by Martin Jefferies

Roger Gale has had his appeal against demands to pay back parliamentary expenses upheld.

The Conservative MP for Herne Bay has been told he will not have to repay nearly £2,500.

The 66-year-old had contested Sir Thomas Legg’s independent inquiry, which concluded he should repay £2,098 for a mobile telephone bill and £354 in rent.

He was among more than 70 MPs who appealed to Sir Paul Kennedy, a former appeal court judge, because they felt the demands were unreasonable.

Following the ruling, Mr Gale said: “I am grateful to Sir Paul for studying with care the information provided and for then reaching the only fair conclusion based upon evidence I had previously submitted to Sir Thomas.

“I have never refused to repay any sums properly due and had indicated to Sir Paul that if he found any repayment to be warranted then I would accept his adjudication without question.”

He added: “As far as I’m concerned, this has never been about money but about reputation.”

Mr Gale has always protested his innocence, insisting that the phone bill was charged before April 2005 when such claims were allowed by the Green Book, which contains rules for members and has since been rewritten.

And Mr Gale said the demand for the other repayment came from a clerical mistake made by Sir Thomas’s team, who claimed he had been paid for 13 months’ rent on his south London flat in 2008/9.

In fact, although Mr Gale had submitted two claims in March 2009 because of the Easter break, he still only received 12 months’ worth of claims in that financial year.