THE backlash against the audit of Parliamentary expenses intensified last night with a Labour MP insisting he would not pay back any money.

Alan Simpson said he was ready to go to court rather than return £500 he has been accused of over-claiming in cleaning bills.

His stand came as Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg was heavily jeered in the Commons after calling for Sir Thomas Legg’s review to be even tougher.

Westminster’s corridors have been buzzing with talk of a rebellion against the audit findings which have left scores of MPs facing handing back thousands of pounds.

However, strong support from Gordon Brown, David Cameron and other party leaders had kept open dissent to a relatively low level.

Mr Simpson told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Sir Thomas had got it “profoundly wrong” and risked “making an ass of himself”. “If he thinks the principle of him coming in and retrospectively re-writing the rules would stand up before the courts, I think he should test it before the courts,” the Nottingham South MP said.

“I just want to give him the opportunity to reflect on something he has got profoundly wrong. I don’t want to push him into going before the courts and making a bit of an ass of himself, but I think it’s a corner he might usefully like to take himself out of.

“I can’t bring myself to believe that he would be so stupid as to want to stay in that corner.”