A London MP reported to have claimed more than £300,000 in second home allowances on his house in the capital insists he has done nothing wrong as it is "part of my salary".
Labour left-winger Harry Cohen said MPs were told "Go out boys and spend it" when the present system was introduced under ex-PM Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
The MP listed a single-bedroom schoolhouse in Colchester, Essex, and a caravan on nearby Mersea Island as his main home, according to The Mail on Sunday.
This meant that over the past five years he was able to claim the maximum allowance of £104,701 on his constituency home 70 miles away in Leyton and Wanstead, east London.
The paper calculated he had received a total of £310,714 in allowances since 1990.
Mr Cohen told the Press Association the arrangement had been cleared with House of Commons authorities.
He said the former Conservative minister John Moore had told MPs "Go out boys and spend it" when he introduced a big uprating of the allowance in the 1980s to head off a pay revolt by backbench Tories.
Mr Cohen said that he had taken full advantage of the arrangement ever since.
"That is exactly what John Moore said on behalf of Mrs Thatcher to her Tory MPs. That makes it part of my salary," he said. "It really is part of my salary in all but name. That is what it exists for."
Nevertheless the latest disclosure is likely to fuel demands for a complete overhaul of the system of MPs' expenses and allowances.
