MPs found to have made excessive expenses claims should pay back what they owe soon or face the consequences, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron said on Tuesday.

The expenses scandal, which rocked parliament earlier this year, resurfaced this week with a demand from independent reviewer Thomas Legg for repayments.

Some politicians complained Legg's retrospective tightening of the rules with lower spending limits went too far, but party leaders are eager to put the scandal behind them in effort to appease voter anger ahead of an election due by mid-2010.

"We've got to get an end to this, we've got to show people we've taken action," Brown told reporters.

"Parliament will have the authority to take whatever action is necessary ... I would advise any MP after they have made their representation to make the appropriate payments."

Brown himself has said he will repay more than 12,000 pounds in cleaning, gardening and decorating bill claims.

Conservative leader Cameron warned his party that refusing to comply with any refund Legg had suggested would result in a ban from the next parliamentary election.

"If people are asked to pay back money and if the authorities determine that money should be paid back and they don't pay it back, in my view, they can't stand as Conservative MPs, that is the minimum point," Cameron told GMTV.

"That is the least we can do to try and sort out these problems of the past before going on to the future." Cameron has been asked for more details about mortgage payments.

Media reports suggested some MPs could refuse to comply with Legg's recommendations. Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe said his retrospective changes were unfair.

"It is contrary to the rules of natural justice and if parliament can't govern itself with the rules of natural justice then it's certainly got no right to be governing anybody else," Widdecombe told BBC radio.