Hard drive theft led to MPs expenses crisis

Search is on for source of leaked information

MPs are under fire over expenses

House of Commons staff have been infuriated by reports of a whistleblower in Westminster who is believed to be responsible for stealing a portable hard drive containing the details of MPs’ expenses, sparking the biggest political crisis of recent years.

Reports suggest the data has been hawked round Fleet Street for weeks before The Daily Telegraph secured the scoop which has dominated newspapers for a fortnight, with no seeming end to the disclosures of politicians, some of whom claimed for mortgage interest on mortgages long paid off, to those who have exploited lax rules for as much as they could get.

The theft - which follows the scandals of missing data at the Ministry of Defence, the tax authorities and others - has been blamed by Commons speaker Michael Martin on a member of staff in the Fees Office, which has been working overtime in an attempt to put expenses records in a condition to be published in July, with personal details of bank and credit card accounts and addresses deleted.

Staff say the finger could equally be pointed at a data processing company called in to assist with the work.

The Commons’ authorities have called in the police to investigate whether a crime has been committed.

Insiders say the initial leak of a claim by home secretary Jacqui Smith for the cost of porn movies for her husband on expenses to The Sunday Express came from the data and was touted by an intermediary, thought to be a former major in the SAS, acting for the mole as a taster.

The Sun and The Times are both believed to have been offered the data and bitterly regret having turned it down.

Reports of the price paid by the Telegraph, which has studiously refused to talk about its sources, suggest between £200,000 and £300,000.