Monday 11th May 2009 | 13:36

The Sleaze Meter

Labour MPs facing the most serious questions about expenses are thought to be Blears, Follett, Ussher, Vaz and Hoon. Tories Maude, Duncan, Gummer, Gove and Grayling are also singled out.

Hazel Blears is the MP who the panel most strongly feels needs to answer questions

After the revelations, the reckoning.  After the exposure of the parliamentary expenses racket, which of our leading politicians face the most serious questions about their avaricious behaviour?

We asked our experts and insiders on the PHI100 for their assessment.  From their collective judgement we can create what you might call a Sleaze Meter.  A score of 100 is the blackest rating.  0 is snow white.

Of the following list of MPs named by the Telegraph in connection with the expenses story which, if any, have stuck in your mind as having serious questions to answer?

Way out front, with a rating of 87, is Hazel Blears, the Housing Minister who is such a whizz at juggling her own portfolio that she claimed on three different properties in a single year.

Another high scorer is Barbara Follett, the Tourism Minister and wife of a multi-millionaire who landed the taxpayer with a big bill for her personal security.  She registers a 60.

Three leading Labour lights who exploited the expenses regime for 'second homes' come next on the Government side of the House.   They are Kitty Ussher, who had the taxpayer help do up her grotty flat in south London, on 48.  Keith Vaz, the man with a taste for silk cushions, on 43. Transport Secretary and property developer, Geoff Hoon scores 42.

The Tories In Most Trouble

Let's now turn to the Conservative side of the aisle after the revelations about their 'property flipping' and the rest of it in today's Daily Telegraph.

The Conservative with most serious questions to answer is Francis Maude, the Shadow Cabinet member who is in charge of Tory plans to cut Whitehall waste and yet is very adept at claiming taxpayers money to spend on himself.   He scores 46.

Alan 'Green Fingers' Duncan scores 46.  Another passionate gardener at the taxpayers' expense is former Cabinet Minister John Gummer.  He scores 33.

The flippers Michael Gove and Chris Grayling score 34 and 30 respectively.

Although members of Sinn Fein boycott the Commons, they seem to know their way around the Fees Office like it was the back of their hands. Gerry Adams scores 42.

The Speaker has serious questions to answer in the view of more than a third of the expert judges.  Michael Martin scores 39.

Gordon Brown took the taxpayer for a cleaner and accidentally billed twice for the same plumbing bill.  But the vast majority of the panel think the Prime Minister doesn't have too much to answer for.  He gets a low reading on the Sleaze Meter of just 12.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband - whose claim for a pram was turned down - registers a low 13.

Margaret Beckett, another of the green-fingered MPs, can also breathe easier.  She gets a rating of only 11.

All Of Them

One left-leaning panellist believes 'all of them' have serious questions to answer.

Many panellists from across the political spectrum believe that the big scandal is the manipulation of the 'second home' allowance by some MPs in a way that has considerably enriched them.  Some panel members find it hard to distinguish that scam from fraud.