AFP - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowed Friday an urgent overhaul of parliament's expenses system, after a newspaper revealed embarrassing details of lawmakers' financial claims, including his own.
  
The latest setback for the embattled premier -- struggling to revive dire poll fortunes ahead of national elections next year -- forced Brown to again admit that MPs' much-criticised arrangements could not continue.
  
"The system doesn't work," he told the BBC after the revelations by the Daily Telegraph. "I've said it doesn't work, it's got to be changed. We voted for change and that change has got to come quickly."
  
Asked if lawmakers needed to live in the "real world," he said: "Absolutely. That's why the system's got to change," adding: "I've been determined over these past few months... the system's wrong, it's not the way to work."
  
His comments came after the Daily Telegraph newspaper published details of expenses claims made by lawmakers, including hand-written receipts by members of Brown's cabinet.
  
Brown was found to have paid his own brother more than 6,000 pounds (9,000 dollars, 6,700 euros) for cleaning services, said the paper, prompting Downing Street to clarify that the money was for a cleaner shared by the two men.
  
He was also found to have claimed twice for a plumbing bill -- a mistake which he only corrected Thursday when the Daily Telegraph pointed it out before publishing the expenses.
  
In other details, Justice Secretary Jack Straw had to refund 1,500 pounds he had been overpaid for a local authority tax, with the scribbled explanation: "Sorry about that... accountancy does not appear to be my strongest suit!"
  
Culture Secretary Andy Burnham had a claim for more than 16,000 pounds to renovate a house refused three times -- until officials relented after he wrote begging them to approve it, "otherwise I might be in line for divorce!"
  
Brown and other party leaders have failed to reach agreement on expense reforms and the Committee on Standards in Public Life watchdog is due to produce proposals for reforming the system by the end of this year.
  
Its chairman Christopher Kelly has described lawmakers' expenses as "the single most damaging issue for public trust in politicians" in the last 15 years.
  
The expenses row, which had been simmering for months, adds to pressure on Brown as he struggles towards elections likely next year which the main opposition Conservatives are widely tipped to win.
  
While the global downturn initially gave his poll ratings a boost, he has been hit by a series of setbacks, including an embarrassing defeat in a parliamentary vote over settlement rights for Gurkha veterans.
  
Conservative Party leader David Cameron, who hopes to oust Brown in about a year's time, was cautious in making political points from the expenses row -- his party's lawmakers also face details of their arrangements being made public.
  
"Everyone has to explain why they've claimed what they've claimed. They have got to explain whether it is within the rules and if it is outside the rules then it has be looked at," he said.
  
The Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, denied that the revelations amounted to "fiddling" expenses.
  
"I think you've got to be quite careful about saying 'fiddling'. I don't think that because Gordon Brown, the prime minister, shared a cleaner for his flat with his brother, that is fiddling," she said.
  
But she added: "I agree with you, and we've all agreed, that the system is not one that commands public confidence and that it had to change."