All change: now MPs' expenses to be revealed.

Byline: By EXAMINER News Correspondent

MPs face having full details of their expenses laid bare after Gordon Brown staged an embarrassing climbdown.

The Prime Minister said a controversial bid to exempt parliament from key parts of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was being shelved.

The dramat ic U-turn sparked a blame game between themain parties, with Mr Brown accusing the Tories of reneging on a deal to back the move.

However, that claim was flatly denied by David Cameron, who insisted he had always been clear that exempting MPs from FOI would be wrong.

The row over generous parliamentary expenses was re-ignited last week when Commons leader Harriet Harmanmade the latest bid to sidestep disclosure.

The proposals were backdated to 2005, meaning they would have nullified rulings from the High Court and Information Tribunal that the public had a right to see receipts showing exactly how MPs were using allowances for second homes.

Instead, expenses would have been published under more categories than before, but still not fully itemised.

The plans came despite the Commons authorities already having spent some pounds 1m since May scanning and redacting 1.2 million receipts ready for publication.

There has been speculation that they were driven by lobbying from some Labour MPs who fear deep embarrassment if disclosure goes ahead.

Ms Harman insisted the Conservatives had backed the measures until "more or less yesterday", but then "pulled the plug" and announced their MPs would be instructed to vote against.

She denied the Government was trying to "cover up" details of expenses.

"What we've said is receipts must be produced and they must be audited but we didn't think it was right that there should be 1.2 million receipts, every single receipt for every ream of paper that is bought should be necessary, and then published."

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COMMONS ROW: PM Gordon Brown under fire