MPs can carry on fiddling expenses
PLANS to stop MPs making themselves and their families rich at taxpayers’ expense were in tatters last night after key reforms looked set to be dropped.
Sir Ian Kennedy, head of the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, said he could scrap a ban on MPs employing their wives and children.
Members with seats within easy commuting distance of London are also set to carry on getting their second home allowances. And MPs will be allowed to designate which of their properties is their second home and “flip” them in order to claim more allowances.
Sir Ian had been expected to back last year’s tough recommendations by Sir Christopher Kelly. But the watered-down draft of measures make the clean-up a farce. Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is absurd and infuriating that this quango is trying to water down the very clear proposals in the Kelly report.
“The public want MPs’ expenses sorting out swiftly and firmly, but Sir Ian seems to be proposing a half-hearted fudge instead.
“Instead of watering down Kelly’s proposals, they should implement them in full immediately. Public faith in Parliament will never be restored unless the filthy stables in Westminster are washed fully clean.”
Labour MP John Mann, a leading critic of the way other members have plundered the expenses system, said: “This will open up all the old wounds again. It will drag the process on and could end up with it not being sorted out until the next Parliament.
“We should have taken the Kelly report on the chin and drawn a line under the whole business. This has the potential of unravelling all Kelly’s good work.” Among the most controversial of Sir Ian’s proposals is to allow MPs to carry on “flipping” their main homes once between general elections. He also suggests MPs should be allowed to claim for “approved security measures” – something that was not backed by Sir Christopher’s inquiry.
Sir Ian also suggested MPs should get a vote on whether they should be forced to hand back profits made on properties bought with taxpayers’ money.
Sir Ian yesterday defended his plans, which were laid out in a consultation document. He said: “I don’t recognise the notion that we were watering down on capital gain.
“The new rules must command public confidence. If they don’t it will be impossible to restore the public’s confidence in our MPs, and thus in our parliamentary democracy.”
More than 200 MPs employ relatives but the Kelly report said the practice should be phased out.
Sir Ian said he agreed, but then went on to add that the authority had heard “very strong views” expressed that family members might be the best qualified applicants.
Former Tory MP Derek Conway was expelled from the party after it emerged he had paid his son around £40,000 despite there being no record of him doing any work at Westminster
The Kelly report also said that MPs with seats within an hour’s journey of Westminster should no longer receive a second home allowance. But Sir Ian instead suggested that the ban on second home allowances would only affect MPs based no further out than Zone 6 of the Transport for London area. That would mean representatives of commuter towns such as Watford, Woking or Sevenoaks, around 15 miles or so from the Commons, would carry on getting allowances.
Some measures backed by Kelly stay. MPs will no longer be able to use second home allowances to make killings on the property market. Instead of mortgage allowances, they will only be reimbursed for rent. And some of Sir Ian’s proposals are tougher than those in Kelly.
For example, he suggested that there should be no golden goodbye for MPs leaving parliament. The Kelly report had suggested £10,000.
