Gordon Brown ordered to repay £12,000 of expenses

Gordon Brown was forced to pay back more than £12,000 in parliamentary expenses tonight after he became the most high-profile victim of new rules imposed retrospectively by an outside auditor.

Amid a growing backlash against what Downing Street sources described as the "arbitrary" rules drawn up by Sir Thomas Legg, the prime minister warned ministers to fall into line as he called on Labour to accept "closure".

Brown issued a personal minute to all ministers calling on them to follow his lead and reject the old "discredited regime" of expenses, after he was ordered by Legg to pay back £12,415.10 for the period 2004-09.

But as MPs began reading their letters from Legg, which started appearing in their Commons pigeonholes at around 5.30pm today, Brown made clear he understood their concern. "It has been a difficult time, a difficult day and difficult letters are on the way," he told the parliamentary Labour party. "We cannot have closure we deal with this."

Brown, who admitted that Labour had been knocked off course by the re-emergence of the expenses scandal, spoke out after he was asked by Legg to make a series of repayments for falling foul of new caps on specific areas of expenditure.

The prime minister will have to repay:

£10,716.60 for cleaning over the five-year period, after Legg imposed a £2,000 annual cap on all cleaning – domestic, window cleaning, dry cleaning and laundry.

£302.50 for gardening over five years after Legg imposed a £1,000-a-year cap.

£1,396 from April 2006, after a bill for painting and decorating was inadvertently charged twice.

Legg insisted in his letter to Brown, one of hundreds sent to all 645 MPs and those who have stood down since 2004, that Brown had done nothing wrong, as he indicated that the prime minister's expenses were in line with the rules in force at the time. "My findings carry no implication or innuendo about the conduct or motive of MPs," Legg wrote. Brown's expenses applied to his Westminster flat until the autumn of 2006. From then, he claimed on his constituency home.

The chancellor, Alistair Darling, will repay £554, after he claimed for a chest of drawers costing £1,104. Treasury sources said the guidelines suggested a £550 limit. Darling has also been asked for a letter to confirm his monthly interest payments, which he will submit immediately.

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, was also asked to make a repayment after he exceeded a new £1,000 annual cap on gardening. Clegg, who made a payment today of £910, charged £3,910 for gardening at his Sheffield Hallam constituency home between 2006 and 2009.

David Cameron appears to have escaped lightly. He has been asked to provide copies of his mortgage interest payments for 2006, after deciding at the height of the expenses scandal to pay back £218.91 wrongly claimed that year. The shadow chancellor, George Osborne, has also been asked to provide copies of his mortgage interest statements. It is understood he has not been asked to repay any money.

Amid weekend reports that Brown would be asked to make a repayment, he moved quickly to shore up his position. On Sunday, the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, wrote to Sir Philip Mawer, the independent adviser on ministerial interests, to advise whether ministers falling foul of the new rules would be in breach of the ministerial code. Mawer wrote to O'Donnell today to say a request for repayment by Legg "does not of itself constitute evidence of a breach of the ministerial code". This allowed Brown to release his personal minute to ministers saying he had not breached the ministerial code.

There is private fury with Legg in Downing Street for rewriting the rules. One Labour source said: "Thomas Legg has completely reinterpreted the rules and retrospectively set arbitrary limits. But we all need to accept his findings because we need closure on this." One Labour MP said he had "never seen such venom" as that witnessed in the House of Commons members' tearoom last night.

Other sources said Legg appeared to have no idea about the costs of paying a fair wage to a cleaner in London. "If you employ a cleaner for five to six hours a week, pay a decent wage and pay national insurance, there are consequences," one said.

There were concerns across the Commons that Legg appeared to have gone beyond his remit. John Bercow, the speaker, wrote to MPs to remind them that Legg was asked by the all-party Commons members' estimates committee to examine payments made "against the rules and standards in force at the time". The letters are understood to fall into three categories: a clean bill of health, a demand for repayment, or a demand for further information.

Brown warned all ministers to accept Legg's findings within a three-week deadline. He told them: "Where they are asked, I urge all ministers to respond promptly, and in full, to any requests for further information and, when the process is completed, to make appropriate repayments. The past system has comprehensively failed and we have taken action to completely replace it. Our actions will mean the discredited regime is replaced … and help to restore public confidence."

Clegg and Cameron also called on their MPs to accept Legg's findings.