MPs expenses: Speaker must publish them all now, or resign, says Bridget (Islington Liberal Democrats)

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

MPs expenses: Speaker must publish them all now, or resign, says Bridget

May 18, 2009 11:09 AM

Speaker must act on expenses, says Bridget

Local Lib Dem parliamentary campaigner Bridget Fox has written to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, to force the full publication of all MPs expenses immediately.

And if he fails to do so, she has called on Speaker Martin to resign.

Bridget is one of 56 Liberal Democrat candidates who have signed an open letter demanding this urgent action. The campaigners are also calling on the Speaker to accept the independent review of MPs expenses and salaries chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly.

Bridget, who helped organise the letter, says "Like many Islington residents from all backgrounds, I am totally disgusted by the expenses scandals. The Speaker should be letting in fresh air and the light of public scrutiny to MPs expenses. Instead he has tried to block publication and has snubbed principled MPs who wanted the truth to come out. He must either clean up his act or resign."

Liberal Democrats have long called for reforms to parliamentary expenses, but these have been blocked by vested interests. Just last year, an unholy alliance of Labour and Tory MPs, including Emily Thornberry, voted down proposals to tighten up MPs' expenses and allowances.

The plans would have introduced independent external audit of MPs' expenses and cut the receipt threshold from £25 to zero so that all claims, however small, would have had to be backed by receipts.

Bridget says, "MPs have been complacent for far too long; voters are angry and disgusted with the lot of them. We need action from the top to sort this mess out. If the Speaker will not act, he must resign."

The MPs who voted to reject this toughening up the expenses regime were 146 Labour MPs (plus two tellers), 21 Conservatives and 2 independents. No Liberal Democrat MP voted against it. Details of how each MP voted can be found here: http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/division.php?date=2008-07-03&number=253&display=allpossible&sort=name