Brown responds with ‘prudence’ pledge
By Alex Stevenson
Gordon Brown was with young Labour candidates and activists as they signed a pledge promising to “put the country’s interest first” this afternoon.
As the Conservatives published details of 45 MPs’ repayments on questionable expenses claims, the prime minister attended an event at the Labour party’s headquarters where he called for politics to be cleaned up “once and for all”.
Among the qualities he promoted were integrity, accountability and prudence with public money.
“We’ve got to make sure that people see that their politicians are in it not for what they can get, but for what they can give,” Mr Brown said.
“That’s why today we promise that we will uphold the highest standards of integrity, we promise that there will be transparency in everything we do, we promise that we will report to our constituents and do so as regularly as possible.”
The 100 activists and candidates signing the pledge promised to “subscribe to high standards of accountability and prudence with public money”.
They also promised that “constituents will always come first”, that “I will regularly report back to my constituency party as well as to my constituents” and that “I seek elected office for the honour of serving the public and our democracy”.
Mr Brown also signed the pledge.
Britain’s national debt currently stands at £787 billion and is expected to rise to 12.5 per cent of GDP.
