LOCAL Sir Michael Spicer said this week that he will pay back whatever sum of expenses that he is ordered to.

When the row about MPs' expenses erupted earlier this year, it was revealed that Sir Michael had made claims totalling £106,141 on his Cropthorne home over the past five years.

This week, Sir Michael said: "On the issue of my expenses I will say this last word. When in 1979 I became part of the Government, I sold the business I had founded and with the proceeds simultaneously bought a house in London and one in the constituency. Each was large enough to house a growing family of three children, and within the constituency, to entertain official guests who ranged from the Speaker of the House of Commons to the Chinese Ambassador.

"For the purpose of maintaining a second house to the standard of repair and tidiness expected of an MP, there was an allowance which I claimed. I did so within the conventions, guidelines and rules operating at the time (while I was working in Parliament I could not myself clean the house or maintain the garden in the constituency).

"Now the rules have been changed retrospectively I shall settle whatever demand is ultimately made of me in order to draw a line under the matter.

"Finally, and hopefully for the last time: I do not have a helipad and my chandelier only has one bulb."