BEN CHAPMAN – whose Westminster career was ended by the expenses scandal – bought two televisions for his London home in the space of one month, the receipts reveal.

The outgoing Labour MP also used taxpayers' cash to buy a settee and chairs (£1,165), Roman blinds (£632.74), a garden shed (£343), carpentry work (£276), a bedhead (£250) and a trellis (£230).

The fees office originally struck out the claim for the trellis, but agreed to pay out when Mr Chapman protested it was essential repairs, rather than a new purchase.

Officials also rejected a £192.06 claim for gas because it was submitted in the wrong financial year, triggering another protest about muddled accounting rules.

Mr Chapman had a £13.95 claim for cable TV rejected in June this year, because he had failed to realise that tougher rules had barred MPs from receiving taxpayers' help for such extras.

The Wirral South backbencher is among the scores of MPs quitting at next year's election, after the earlier exposé about his £15,000 "phantom mortgage".

It was revealed that, with the agreement of the Commons fees office, Mr Chapman deliberately overclaimed on a London home loan he had partially paid off.

Yesterday's receipts, which cover a later period, show he bought a £449 32-inch Panasonic TV in July, 2008, claiming it on his expenses.

The following month, Mr Chapman submitted a £259 receipt for a 19-inch Samsung TV, which was also reimbursed by taxpayers.