FORMER Ramsbottom MP David Chaytor, who is accused of expenses fraud, has won a bid to get the public to pick up his legal bill.

Court officials confirmed that Chaytor, who stepped down from his Bury North seat before the General Election, will receive taxpayer-funded legal aid.

Together with Elliot Morley and Jim Devine, he is accused of stealing almost £60,000 in allowances through false mortgage applications, rent claims and invoices for services.

But, asked about the case during a radio phone-in, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said Mr Chaytor will have to pay the money back Mr Brown said: "I think this money will have to be paid back by these politicians.

"I think the evidence is that people in their position will have to pay back the money - or most of the money - they get in legal aid.

"We have actually abolished this free legal aid from the end of June, so it has to be means-tested from the end of June and they wouldn't have got it in these circumstances.

"The law has changed, so I think the money will have to be paid back."

Mr Brown said the offences with which the MPs are charged were "completely morally unacceptable" and said he was proposing changes to the law to allow voters to recall MPs who are found to have committed financial wrongdoing.

"I think it is very unfortunate that we have had these MPs who nobody really knew were actually doing these things," he said.

"I have always believed that the only reason to be an MP is for public service and not to serve yourself, for what you can put in not what you can get out."

Blackburn MP Jack Straw said Labour had already introduced reforms, against Tory opposition, to enable the courts to means-test white-collar defendants for legal aid.

The changes were not being implemented in time to cover the MPs' case.

The cost of preparing their defence and of their legal representatives is likely to run into six figures, depending on the length of the trial.

But it could spiral far higher as the men threaten to take their battle to have the case against them thrown out to the Supreme Court.

The three have brought together some of the country’s most eminent barristers, who can charge hundreds of pounds an hour, to fight their cases.

They have already told judges they should be dealt with by Parliamentary authorities instead of the courts.

Mr Chaytor, 60, who grew up in Summerseat but now lives in Todmorden, is accused of falsely claiming rent on a London flat he owned, falsely filing invoices for IT work and renting a property from his mother, against regulations.