CLACTON MP Douglas Carswell has defended his six-figure expense claims.

Parliamentary figures show Mr Carswell claimed more than neighbouring colleagues, but the MP said they were the “average” for East Anglia.

Figures released this week show that in the last financial year Mr Carswell submitted claims for a total of £176,325.85, including £135,551 on staff.

This compares with Harwich and North Essex MP Bernard Jenkin spending £142,080, including £131,401.31 on staffing.

Colchester MP Will Quince was lowest on £104,650, including £87,745 in staffing costs.

The figures were released by Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in a bid to encourage transparency.

Mr Carswell commented: “It is simply not the case that my claims were the highest. A moment’s examination of the IPSA figures shows that I claimed about average for an MP in East Anglia.

“Being the sole MP for my party, which got almost four million votes at the last election, I tend to get a bigger than average post bag each day.

The UKIP MP could have claimed more, in what his known as ‘short money.’ After last May’s election, Mr Carswell and UKIP were entitled to a further £619,128 of “short money” for office and parliamentary support staff.

However, UKIP refused to take the full amount, believing it to be wrong to have too much taxpayer-funded politics.

“I turned down £322,441 of public money last year that I was not only entitled to claim but came under some pressure to claim. I handed it back to the taxpayer,” he added.