HAMPSHIRE MP Julian Lewis has said he would be ‘astonished’ if he was asked to repay any of the £7,000 expenses he claimed for redecorating his second home.

The New Forest East MP denies any wrongdoing in his expenses claims and insisted he had only used it to carry out essential maintenance and had not abused the system.

Dr Lewis also said he only sought advice over whether he should claim £6,000 for a new wooden floor in his second home as part of the overall bill for refurbishing the flat.

Criticising reports that he asked Commons officials if he could claim for the wooden floor but was refused, he said: “It is slightly misleading to say that I “asked Commons officials if I could claim for a £6,000-plus wooden floor but was refused”.

“What I did was to send the Fees Office, in advance, the entire list of works I intended to undertake and to request guidance as to which would be claimable and which would not,” he said.

His claims included £2,369.75 for Bosch kitchen appliances, a £4,870 redecoration bill, a number of other household items such as a £119 trouser press, a £5 "sweater tidy" and a £4 tin of wax polish.

Defending the claims, Dr Lewis said the oven, hob, dishwasher and washing-machine were more than 10 years old and "damaged, worn-out or, in the case of the electric hob, extremely uneconomic.”

“Their replacements were the exact new equivalents of the worn-out units. They were not an upgrade. It was entirely appropriate to renew the items in this way," he said.

He added that he did not replace working items in his kitchen such as a fridge freezer.

"This is in stark contrast to cases where people have claimed many thousands of pounds for installing complete new kitchens," he said.

“Yes I did claim for a trouser press. I need a trouser press," he said.

"Anybody who wears a pair of trousers or a suit needs a trouser press unless they are going to stay up all night ironing them."

He descirbed the curremt MPs expenses system as “rotten”

Asked if he expected his claims to be deemed excessive by Mr Cameron's scrutiny panel, he said: "I do not want to prejudge but I would be astonished if any of it did."

The shadow defence secretary was among a number of MPs who backed a bill attempted to scupper the public release of their expenses.