A Midland MP is giving up his London flat in protest at the refusal of the House of Commons to cut down dramatically on expenses claims.

Dan Kawczynski (Con Shrewsbury) will turn down the £24,000 second-home allowance which all MPs are entitled to.

Instead, he will rent a room at £94 a night - but only when he is in London on Commons business.

Mr Kawczynski said he was concerned that many members of the public believed MPs were trying to milk the system for all they could get.

And he criticised reporting of "expenses" for giving the impression that MPs were pocketing money which in fact was spent on staffing and legitimate expenses.

He made the decision to give up his flat following a Commons vote earlier this week when MPs clung on to the right to kit out their second homes at the taxpayers' expense.

The Government blocked Conservative proposals to end all expenses claims for household goods and furniture.

Instead, MPs will now only be able to claim £2,400 a year for such items.

The Commons also agreed to scrap the "John Lewis list" - which details how much MPs can claim for an array of goods based on prices at the up-market department store.

But Conservatives, who had called for an end to any furniture claims, insisted the new cap did not go far enough. MPs representing constituencies outside London are entitled to up to £24,000 a year to help with the cost of having second home near the House of Commons.

Mr Kawczynski had been using the allowance to rent a flat in the capital, while many of his colleagues use it to help pay mortgages on properties they have bought.

But he has decided to give up his flat, and instead rent a room at a London club when he is attending the Commons.

Because the price is £94 a night - and he will only pay anything when he is actually staying in London - he estimates the cost will be about £11,000 a year, or less.

He said: "This way you don't need to worry about council tax or anything else. It will work out far cheaper than the £24,000 allowance.

"I want to show people in Shrewsbury that I am trying to reduce the expenses I receive and only claiming for accommodation when I am actually in London on their behalf, and voting and representing them in Parliament."

He added: "I'm sick and tired of the way the media is deliberately misleading the electorate on MPs' expenses and doing phenomenal damage to the integrity of MPs.

"One constituent said to me that they had been planning to vote for me but wouldn't, because I claimed £120,000 on expenses. I had to explain that I don't see a penny of it."

Mr Kawczynski has previously suggested that the Commons could save money by providing halls of residence for MPs to use while they are in London which could then be rented out during the long summer recess, but this idea was rejected by colleagues.

MPs yesterday succeeded in their fight to prevent their home addresses being available to the public.

The Government moved an order to exclude certain information that Commons authorities would have had to disclose under Freedom of Information laws.

Now the addresses of MPs, their travel plans, how much they spend on security and the identities of people who deliver goods or provide services to them will not be able to be revealed under the Freedom of Information Act...SUPL: