Ministers, expenses and the speaker – where next?

By Simon Leonard

About 6 weeks ago on LabourList I wrote that as the powers that be had made such little progress in regard to reforming the system of MPs expenses, perhaps an online grassroots investigation might come up with some acceptable proposals. Sadly the idea wasn’t taken up and my utopian vision of wiki-democracy suffered a setback.

Undeterred and with my sense of despair and fear as to the democratic implications of the expenses scandal, especially in relation to the extremist parties benefiting, I’m trying again with proposals for now and the future.

Action to be taken immediately

* Any member of the government caught up in this row should step down. Regardless of whether their actions were within the rules, if it does not pass Harman’s ‘court of public opinion’ test or Cameron’s ‘front page of the Daily Mail’ test, they should live up to the ‘Right Honourable’ label and remove themselves from front-line politics.

* All MPs should ask their constituency parties to institute a re-selection process during the summer recess. It should be for local party members to judge whether or not their current representative is the right person to stand at the next election and the for the electorate to decided if they are fit to return to Westminster. I cannot be the only person uncomfortable with the media – especially the print media – attempting to be judge, jury and executioner on this issue.

* Michael Martin should announce that this will be his last Parliamentary session as speaker and canvassing for a replacement should begin. Ideally, the person will be someone who commands respect on all sides of the House, has not been caught up in this expenses fiasco and is willing to undertake a high profile media role to explain the changes that will necessarily be made to the expenses system. Good luck with that.

* Those MP’s re-selected by their constituencies should return to Parliament – in their own time – for a week before the party conference season in order to elect a new speaker and openly debate the expenses issue. It would be helpful if Sir Christopher Kelly could make an interim statement as to how his enquiry is progressing to serve as the basis for this debate. The debate on 42 days’ detention showed that on occasions Parliament can be an effective venue for debate and for the sake of our democratic health, we need to see more of this.

Changes to the system of allowances

* The Additional Cost Allowance (ACA) should be solely for mortgage interest or rent and utilities. A quick search on rightmove.co.uk shows that £200 is more than enough to rent a 1 bedroom flat within 3 miles of Westminster. Any MP who wishes to rent a larger property has to make up the difference at their own expense.

* If an MP wishes to use the ACA for mortgage interest payments, the allowance should be 75% of that which is available for rental.

* Similarly, if an MP wishes to use the ACA to fund a constituency property, the allowance should further be reduced by 25% given the differential costs outside London.

* The maximum amount that can be claimed for council tax and utilities should be £50 per week.

* Food and furniture may not be claimed on the ACA.

* MPs who are entering Parliament for the first time will be able to claim a £5,000 advance on their salary to meet potential setting-up costs. This allowance to be repaid with interest over the life of the Parliament.

These steps would reduce the maximum ACA from £24,000 to £13,000 per year and in the long term Parliament should look to buy up 1 bedroom apartments and rent them out to MPs when they are sitting, thus keeping public money in public hands. In addition, during the summer and winter recesses, the properties could be rented out to tourists for those 4 months.

So what do people think? I know there are many who will not be satisfied until certain ‘honourable’ members are in Wormwood Scrubs but as Chris Hune pointed out on Channel 4 News, proving intent to defraud is going to be difficult. To my mind, these proposals are eminently workable and would be a small step in the right direction.