Winterton fires parting expenses shot
By politics.co.uk staff
Departing Tory MP Nicolas Winterton has fired a furious parting shot over the expenses scandal, saying MPs should not be prevented from travelling in first class.
Speaking about MPs’ travel between London and their constituency to Radio 5 Live, he said: “In order to be able to do that they need to be able to sit down, and you can’t always do that in standard class… and you also need quiet and sadly, you don’t very often get that in standard class.
“If I was in standard class I would not do work because people would be looking over your shoulder the entire time, there would be noise, there would be distraction,” he continued.
“They are a totally different type of people.
“There’s lots of children, there’s noise, there’s activity. I like to have peace and quiet when I’m travelling.”
The Tories were quick to distance themselves from the Macclesfield MP’s comments, describing them as the “out-of-touch views of a soon to retire backbench MP”.
