MPS' HUMILIATION 'WEAKENS POLITICS'

Rowan Williams suggested that - after two weeks of embarrassing disclosures about MPs' expenses claims - continued daily revelations were causing irrevocable harm.

He acknowledged the gravity of the scandal and the need for reform, but declared: "Many will now be wondering whether the point has not been adequately made."

He added: "The continuing systematic humiliation of politicians itself threatens to carry a heavy price in terms of our ability to salvage some confidence in our democracy."

His intervention, in an article for The Times, came after Tory MP Nadine Dorries complained that there was now a "McCarthy-style witch-hunt" against MPs.

She was quickly slapped down by Tory leader David Cameron after describing the situation at Westminster as "completely unbearable".

The backbencher warned on her blog there were fears that an MP could commit suicide. But Mr Cameron said MPs should be more concerned about what their constituents were thinking. "Of course MPs are concerned about what is happening but, frankly, MPs ought to be concerned about what their constituents think and ought to be worrying about the people who put us where we are," he said.

Meanwhile, the man who brokered the release of MPs' expenses claims has stepped forward to insist Parliament would be a better place for the disclosures.

John Wick, a former SAS officer, was confirmed by the Daily Telegraph as the middleman in the leaking of the detailed breakdown of claims that has rocked Westminster. He is the head of a corporate intelligence company which contacted newspapers on behalf of the Commons whistleblower who passed over the unedited claims.

Mr Wick told the Telegraph he had "no regrets" about his role in getting the information into the public domain, saying the expenses system had been "exposed to its rotten core". He added: "Parliament will be a better place, society will be a better place. Sometimes a marker has to be put down. The public's put a marker down. It's good."