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Pay back expenses, Harriet Harman tells angry MPs
16.10.09
A senior Cabinet minister urged MPs to pay back expenses demanded from them by independent auditor Sir Thomas Legg.
Amid increasingly open dissent on the Labour backbenches over the former civil servant's demands, Home Secretary Alan Johnson last night insisted that the Legg review was "part of the solution, not the problem".
Mr Johnson did not rule out the possibility of MPs going to jail as a result of the expenses scandal, saying only: "The police are investigating at least three of our colleagues and we will have to see how it goes."
His comments came as Conservative MP David Wilshire announced he would stand down from Parliament at the coming election after allegations that he paid more than £100,000 of taxpayer-funded office allowances into a company which he jointly owned with his wife.
Mr Wilshire, MP for Spelthorne in Surrey, has referred himself to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon and said he was confident he would be cleared of any wrongdoing.
But he said the investigation would cause distress to his family and friends and harm Tory chances of victory in the election expected in the spring, adding: "In the circumstances I have reluctantly concluded that it is sensible for me not to seek re-election next year."
As Mr Wilshire's case involves office allowances, it is unrelated to Sir Thomas's review of MPs' second home expense claims, which has sparked fury at Westminster by retrospectively imposing caps on cleaning and gardening costs.
Labour MP Claire Curtis-Thomas yesterday said many of her party colleagues at Westminster felt "bitterly let down" by Gordon Brown's failure to offer them "unequivocal" support over the issue.
"People who have spent their lifetime working for politics, in all parties, feel bitterly let down on a personal level," she said.
"The lack of defence, the lack of unequivocal support for the vast majority of people in our party I think has been really disappointing. Colleagues are pretty damning."
Labour's MP for Stroud, David Drew, said Mr Brown appeared to have commissioned Legg's audit "on a whim" without taking enough care over its remit.
"It is ludicrous that the person who seemed to do this on a whim hadn't designed the brief before he got the individual, or allowed the individual to design his own brief," said Mr Drew.
"It just seems schadenfreude that the very person who set this up gets handed with a £12,000 bill. It is almost hilarious, except it is deeply serious. To set up a review that was going to cause even more problems is an own goal."
One Labour MP, Alan Simpson, has suggested that he would be ready to go to court to fight the £500 repayment demanded from him by Legg.
But Mr Johnson told BBC1's Question Time: "Legg is part of the solution, not the problem. People should just pay the money back and pay it quickly. We are never going to restore trust in British politics until this episode is over."
He added: "The public expect an independent audit of these accounts and when the independent auditor says pay it back, you pay it back. End of story."
Reader views (5)
That's funny I thought Harpy Harman was whipping them into a frenzy of revolt.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
Right.
Have Johnson and Hatemen had a word with Jacqui Smith lately?
If so let's hope she takes a sound piece of payback advice.
- Ken, France
Labour's MP for Stroud, David Drew, said Mr Brown appeared to have commissioned Legg's audit "on a whim" without taking enough care over its remit.
What does he think the remit should have been? To say all MPs had behaved beyond reproach? Not to make the greedy pay back anything?
- Dave, London
An independent audit? Just like the INDEPENDENT Police Complaints Commission? Propped up by some useless womble who has less credibility than a dead rattlesnake?
What is Harperson spouting on about? She knows a thing or ten about money-grabbing riff-raff, commonly called MP's.
I AM STILL WAITING FOR THE SERIOUS FRAUD SQUAD TO ARREST JUST ONE MP WHO HAS ROBBED JOE PUBLIC BLIND.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR
I eagerly await the outcome of the enquiry into all those who made fradulent claims for non-existent mortgages, non-existent/non-essential "second" homes, husbands and wives claiming for the same home, etc., etc., etc.
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK
