Lib Dems demand action to clean up Parliament: Emily Thornberry is "part of the problem". (Islington Liberal Democrats)

Islington Liberal Democrats <Islington_ld@cix.co.uk>

Lib Dems demand action to clean up Parliament: Emily Thornberry is "part of the problem".

April 8, 2009 4:42 PM

Local Liberal Democrat candidate Bridget Fox has promised to help clean up Parliament.

Labour MPs are defending their expenses claims as scandals involving senior cabinet members continue to come to light. Local Labour MP Emily Thornberry has also received criticism from the Islington Liberal Democrats for spending the third highest of all London MPs on "communications" - and the ninth highest of all 646 MPs in the UK - according to new figures released by the Parliamentary authorities.

Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, spent £22,013 on "communications" and postage in the last year - coming in the top 1% of all MPs.

According TheyWorkForYou.com, the non-partisan website keeping tabs on politicians, Ms. Thornberry replied within 3 weeks to only a low number of messages sent to her. Ms. Thornberry came 621 out of 646 MPs for responding to constituents, making her the 25th worst in the whole of Parliament.

Islington Liberal Democrats have demanded to know how the high expenditure tallies with her poor performance.

Last year Ms. Thornberry paid back thousands of pounds after the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner found that she had used taxpayers' money to send out 10,400 unsolicited campaigning letters.

Local resident, long-serving Finsbury campaigner, and former Mayor of Islington, Joe Trotter said:

"Politicians should tell us what they're up to, but Emily Thornberry's expenses are just too high. How can she spend three times more than Jeremy Corbyn?

"With all the expenses scandals surrounding Labour Ministers, we need a local MP who's going to clean up Parliament. But Emily is just part of the problem, with her high spending, repeated run-ins with the authorities, and record of voting to keep MPs' expenses secret and unaudited.

"I think she's more interested in looking after her tiny majority than looking after taxpayers' hard-earned money."