LIB Dem housing spokesman Lembit Opik has said he will refund £40 he claimed for a court summons he received for not paying his council tax.

The Montgomeryshire MP's expenses claim was revealed by the Daily Telegraph newspaper as it turned its attention to members of his party.

The Tory and Labour leaders have already promised action after claims by MPs in their parties were published by the newspaper in the past few days.

But the MP, who was once engaged to Neath weathergirl Sian Lloyd before dumping her for one half of the Cheeky Girls, attacked the paper for the way it had handled the news.

He said: "Sadly the Telegraph don't tell you that they sent me eight questions relating to about £30,000 of expenditure and all they have been left with is this £40.

"They don't tell you that my brother had died in November 2005 and funnily enough the council tax in London was not the highest thing on my mind at the time.

"The Telegraph have absolutely no empathy and no understanding, no willingness to give you the whole story, and that's tragic."

Mr Opik, the party's former housing spokesman, added: "I'm going to speak to the fees office and I'm certainly willing to refund it, if that's the right thing to do."

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said MPs should have to return any profits they made on their second homes to the taxpayer.

He said he had always intended to give back any profits that he made when he eventually came to sell up.

He said he could now be requiring members of his frontbench team to do the same until there were new rules in place.

"The greatest abuse in the system has been the ability for MPs to play the system for personal profit, avoiding capital gains tax, buying and selling properties as if they were property speculators rather than MPs."