Leaders in trouble as expenses retribution steps up
By Alex Stevenson and Ian Dunt
The leaders of all three main political parties were facing a torrent of criticism today, after receiving letters about their expenses claims from Sir Thomas Legg.
Downing Street confirmed the prime minister received a letter and would have to pay back £12,415.
Tory leader David Cameron was asked to provide documentation clarifying why he needed to repay £218.96 he claimed in mortgage interest on his constituency home in Oxfordshire.
The money was repaid in June, together with £728 for a wrongly claimed electricity bill and a staff phone. He blamed an “inadvertent administrative error” for the mortgage claim.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg will be paying back £910 for “gardening costs”.
Sir Thomas Legg, charged with the official investigation into the expenses scandal, wrote to around half of Westminster’s MPs asking them to pay back claims deemed excessive or inappropriate.
MPs are being given three weeks to respond and defend their claims, but some – including Gordon Brown – are proposing to accept his “draft conclusions” regardless.
The letters will end the hopes of those who hoped the 83-day summer recess might have laid the expenses scandal to rest.
Some parliamentarians face additional embarrassment. The Metro newspaper revealed shadow justice secretary Eleanor Laing had not paid back £25,000 in expenses claims nearly four months after promising she would.
And Swraj Paul, a close friend of the prime minister and Labour peer, was accused by the Sunday Times of having pretended a flat outside London was his main home.
Commenting on rumours some MPs might refuse to comply with Sir Thomas’ requests, Unlock Democracy’s director Peter Facey said: “Contesting this process will achieve nothing except to prolong the agony and drain the authority of parliament still further.
“MPs who are serious about rebuilding their relationship with the public should quietly pay up if asked by Sir Thomas.”
The TaxPayers’ Alliance’s chief executive Matthew Elliott also backed Sir Thomas, saying it was “absolutely right” he seek to reclaim taxpayers’ money by applying retrospective standards.
“This is a prime opportunity for MPs to win back the trust of the people they are supposed to represent, they should not have to be nagged and heckled into paying their dues, they should do it voluntarily,” he said.
Today’s return to Westminster marks the start of the political season in earnest.
It comes as Greenpeace protestors stage a demonstration on the roof of parliament. Around 20 climate change activists occupied the roof yesterday afternoon and remained in place this morning.
Meanwhile, Gordon Brown has announced the government’s latest initiative to help draw down the public deficit. The sale of non-financial assets like the channel tunnel rail link will raise £16 billion in two years, he will tell an audience in central London.
The House of Commons last sat on July 21st, when the culture media and sport committee questioned Tory communications chief Andy Coulson over bugging allegations during his time as editor of the News of the World tabloid.
Since then Britain has been caught up in a wave of patriotism with the welovetheNHS Twitter campaign, the armed forces have fought and died to defend an election of dubious credibility in Afghanistan and Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi has been released by the Scottish government.
The summer had given MPs an opportunity to escape the furore of the expenses scandal, which engulfed the Palace of Westminster throughout the spring and summer. With the appointment of Sir George Young as shadow Leader of the House and new Speaker John Bercow still settling into his headmaster-style gown the mood of the Commons is likely to remain subdued as work continues to establish the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority – and Sir Thomas sends out his letters.
A new MP took her seat in the House later today. Chloe Smith won the Norwich North by-election for the Conservatives two days after the House rose, meaning she has had to wait nearly three months before beginning her work in parliament.
Gordon Brown will make a statement to the Commons updating the House on progress in Afghanistan over the summer on Wednesday.
It will come after the first prime minister’s questions since Mr Brown admitted that “cuts” would be needed in public spending. The session is likely to mark a significant shift in the prime minister’s arguments contrasting Tory cuts of ten per cent with Labour investment.
