United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal lodged against the High Court ruling, and the requested details were made public on 23 May 2008. Prior to "The Daily Telegraph"'s revelations in May and June 2009 and the official publication of expenses claims in June 2009, and during the Freedom of Information cases, there were a variety of exposés that covered the controversial John Lewis List (a list considered to indicate amounts that could be claimed without question) and individual MPs’ expenses claims. Examples of items publicised prior to the May 2009 disclosures included: In May 2009, two months prior to the official disclosure of full expenses claims,
UK Independence Party who had left the party after its leader, David Cameron, had moved in a socially liberal direction. According to Farage, Cameron was "a socialist" whose priorities were "gay marriage, foreign aid, and wind farms". Cameron was highly critical of UKIP, referring to them as "fruitcakes, loonies, and closet racists". The Conservatives' largest donor, Stuart Wheeler, donated £100,000 to UKIP after criticising Cameron's stance towards the Treaty of Lisbon and the EU. After trust in the mainstream parties was damaged by the UK parliamentary expenses scandal, UKIP received an immediate surge in support. This helped it in the 2009 European Parliament