It later emerged that Wilshire had spent over £1,000 of taxpayers' money on furniture in 2004, which contradicted his previous claims. When challenged on this, he refused to give an interview but sent an email to the local press in which he stated that: "I obtained the cheapest self-assembly replacement available from MFI". However, even this email caused him more problems, as in it he stated that he had bought the flat in 1983 — four years before he had become an MP and four years before when he previously revealed he had bought it. He later wrote a letter to the paper stating that he did buy the flat in 1987 and that the paper's journalists had been forgetful about facts he had told them, and had confused "furnishing a property with repairing it". The newspaper replied that it stood by what it had reported. When local demands grew for Wilshire to meet his constituents over the claims, Mr Wilshire expressed that he would only meet them one-to-one, and would not hold a public meeting.