TWO of East Yorkshire's best-known MPs earned thousands on top of their Westminster salaries – while also claiming for household items on parliamentary expenses.

Hull East MP John Prescott's claims for two new toilet seats, plumbing work and mock Tudor fascia boards to be fitted to the front of his house in Sutton were all funded by the taxpayer.

However, the official register of MPs' interests reveals the veteran Labour politician is certainly not short of a bob or two.

His register entries over the past 12 months show he has earned up to £160,000 in book and TV deals as well as speaking fees. The earnings are in addition to his annual £62,000 salary as an MP.

Since April last year, Mr Prescott has been paid £60,000 in royalties by Headline Publishing for his book Prezza: Pulling No Punches, which was ghostwritten by author Hunter Davies.

They followed two earlier payments from Headline worth a total of £140,000, which were paid in late 2007 and early last year.

During the past 12 months Mr Prescott was also paid £40,000 by TV production company Tiger Aspect for his work on the two-part documentary Prescott On Class, which was screened on BBC2 earlier this year.

The register also includes seven separate entries by Mr Prescott covering speaking engagements for which he received fees.

They included events in Torquay, Brighton, Harrogate, London, Dundee and Aberdeen, as well as a tourism conference in Cyprus where the costs of travel and accommodation for both Mr Prescott and his wife Pauline were met by the event organisers.

The register entries reveal he was paid between £5,000 and £10,000 to speak at each event, with all of his appearances being arranged through public speaking agency JLA Associates. On JLA's website, the former Deputy Prime Minister is listed as a "B Category" attraction in a section on "Corridors of Power after-dinner speakers" who each come with a fee of between £5,000 and £10,000 per engagement.

Expenses claims paid to Haltemprice and Howden MP David Davis and highlighted earlier this week included £400 for overhauling a tractor mower and a £640 carpet for the breakfast room at his home near Howden.

According to the interests' register, he was paid "up to £5,000" by a national newspaper group for two articles. The payment was registered by Mr Davis in February.

East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight, who has yet to feature in the expenses revelations, received up to £10,000 last year in "occasional" book royalties as well as up to £5,000 in writing and appearance fees paid by the Working Men's Club and Institute Union.

No other local MP has included payments on the register.