Parliament will ignore high court expenses ruling if it goes against them

Court 2, 10.30am tomorrow on the Strand sees the next stage of the battle to get details of MPs' expenses released. The High Court is due to hear the House of Common's appeal against a ruling by the Information Tribunal that every receipt for 14 MPs' £23,000 Additional Costs Allowance should be made public. The Speaker is - inevitably - resisting.

The assumption had been that this ruling would create a legal precident and, in time, would apply to all MPs. Not so.

Apparently if they lose, the House of Commons Commission is considering publishing the details for the 14, but fight any FOI requests submitted about other MPs "from scratch". Apparently there is a belief that the legal team representing the Commission made such a hash of it that they could fight the same fight again - and win.

Seems unlikely - how can this not create a precedent. But what is clear is that details of how MPs spend public money on themselves must be protected at whatever cost.