Campaigner hits out at missing pages

The campaigner and journalist who first lodged a freedom of information request to reveal MPs' expenses today described their online publication as "ridiculous".

Heather Brooke, 38, told the Standard: "There are far too many black holes, it's ridiculous. Even the page numbers have been blacked out so it's impossible to tell how much information has been removed. Whole pages have been left out. The public paid for these expenses yet they're being given a sub-standard record.

"Most of the decisions to withhold information have not been for security but to save personal embarrassment. If it wasn't for the earlier leak, we would never have known about much of the misuse of public money, especially the flipping of second homes because addresses have been obscured."

The former BBC journalist won a ruling in the High Court last year that the information should be released.

Today she said: "This not in line with what was required by [the] ruling."