The other repayments are smaller, including John Pugh (Southport – £422.62), David Watts (St Helens North – £270), Andrew Miller (Ellesmere Port and Neston – £169.74) and George Howarth (Knowsley North and Sefton East – £150).

They are dwarfed by the payback made by Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling, the “Shadow Minister for Liverpool”, who has returned £5,101.08, for reasons unknown.

Tory leader David Cameron has already banned Mr Grayling – who claimed for three TVs and two DVD players in four years – from making second home claims, because his constituency home is just 17 miles from Westminster.

Meanwhile, Andy Burnham, the Merseyside-born Health Secretary, has repaid £2,742 to cover two cases where he was overpaid by Commons officials.

The list reveals the top five repayments to be Phil Hope (Lab – £42,674), Elliot Morley (Lab – £36,800), Barbara Follett (Lab – £32,976), Jonathan Djanogly (Con – £25,000) and Keith Vaz (Lab – £18,949).

Labour MPs came off worst. The party's MPs have paid back £316,027 (66% of the total returned), compared with the Conservatives (£130, 798, or 27%) and the Liberal Democrats (£27,082, or 5%).

Last night, the outgoing Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, made a parting swipe at his critics over the expenses row and insisted he could have held onto the post if he had tried.

Mr Martin said: “If I had fought, I would have won.”

He maintained he was always up to the job, but admitted he had become a “lightning conductor” for anger over the expenses scandal.