HIGH Peak MP Tom Levitt – whose expenses are among the top ten highest in Parliament – was warned by the Commons fees office that he might face public criticism if his claims were ever published.

Officials vetoed two of his claims – one for a £16 Remembrance Day poppy wreath, the other for £8,013.77 for a new bathroom at his London flat.

He was reminded of the "John Lewis rule" when he tried to exceed the £6,335 for the installation of the bathroom.

Officials also queried the £5,281 bill for work to replace carpets with wooden laminate flooring and solid oak skirting boards, details revealed in the Sunday Telegraph, whom Mr Levitt accused recently in his weekly column of "conniving with criminals in gutter journalism."

And the officials warned that he would face public criticism should such claims be exposed.

The High Peak MP told the Advertiser: "I want to make it quite clear, as I did in an interview with the Telegraph, that the poppy wreath claim was a mistake, it should not have been claimed and it was quite rightly not paid. The fact that I have purchased over 20 poppy wreaths in 12 years and only one was subject to an error shows that it was a mistake."

His expenses were put under the spotlight in the Sunday Telegraph where various items claimed between 2004 and 2008 were highlighted - including £19,99 for a hairdryer and £795 for a Monterey sideboard.

In a statement volunteered by the Labour MP in last week's Advertiser he admitted overclaiming on expenses for his London home's mortgage – but repaid the amount before the current storm of anger over the issue.

Speaking this week, he said: "I also stress that there has never been a financial year in which I had a net overclaim on mortgage interest; any miscalculations have been quickly spotted and quickly remedied.

"If you look at the cost of my second home in London over 12 years I believe it to be reasonable, both compared to other MPs and measured by the rules themselves, bearing in mind that the rent on a south London one-bedroom ex-council flat can easily be £15,000 per year.

"Quite clearly the rules have been weak, poorly enforced and in some cases very poorly observed. I repeat that where there have been breaches of the law or deliberate breaches of the rules people should be punished."

He refuted claims by Advertiser readers that he had voted against publication of MPs' expenses in the past: "This is simply not true. I have always supported their publication and they were due to be published this summer in any case.

"What I voted against a couple of years ago was the routine publication under Freedom of Information rules of my correspondence about individual constituents. People talk to me about their mental health problems, financial problems – sometimes unknown to their close family – and even their criminal behaviour," said the MP who was first elected in 1997.

"It would not be right for that information to be in the public domain.

Following that vote we had a clarification of the law to say that such letters would not have to be disclosed and that is quite right," added Mr Levitt.

"My record, supporting thousands of individual constituents with their problems, fighting for the policies that help people in the High Peak, is a good one.

"All politicians need to come together to take measures urgently that will restore confidence in Parliament."

Mr Levitt was revealed by The Times newspaper to be the seventh most expensive MP in the House Commons, based on his expenses claimed from 2005 to 2008, which totalled £436,686, excluding travel.