RENEE MONTAGNE, host: NPR's business news starts with a catalog of British lawmakers' expenses.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Members of Parliament have been claiming an array of expenses from eyeliner to pet food and now the public is demanding changes to the system by which MPs make their claims and here's Rob Gifford, reports from London.</s>ROB GIFFORD: The Daily Telegraph newspaper managed to get hold of a huge stack of MPs' expenses which show how politicians of all parties have been claiming an extraordinary array of things at taxpayers' expense. There are claims for everything from cat food to chocolate bars and for services such as changing light bulbs and repairing leaky pipes under tennis courts. Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown has come under scrutiny for paying his brother more than $9000 for a cleaner, he says, they shared.</s>ROB GIFFORD: MPs are defending themselves by saying all their claims were within the rules and, strictly speaking, they were. It turns out, though, that Members of Parliament wrote their own rules about what they can claim. While reports focused initially on the ruling Labour Party, there have been further revelations today about opposition Conservative Party politicians. Now Parliament has said it will set up an independent body to oversee legislators' expenses.</s>ROB GIFFORD: Rob Gifford, NPR News, London.
Members of the British Parliament have been claiming an array of items at the expense of taxpayers. The public is demanding changes to the system by which British lawmakers make their claims. The calls for change came after a newspaper published a list of expense claims.