Archive for mps expenses
Good news, bad news: Nicholas Soames MP
Good news: the Conservative MP for Mid-Sussex has more than halved the number of outside jobs he does in addition to being an MP.
Bad news: he’s still doing three, paying over £350,000 per year in total.
(Back in December 2005, he had seven outside jobs, but payment for them did not have to be disclosed.)
Certainly can’t [...]
What will the impact be of MPs’ expenses on turnout?
From one of the latest YouGov polls:
Does the expenses scandal…
Makes me more likely to vote at the coming election, to express my anger at the way some politicians have behaved 14%<
Makes me more likely NOT to vote, because politicians are much the same, and I don’t trust any of them any longer 12%
Net: +2%
Make no difference, [...]
What happened to the 19 Conservative MPs who voted to keep MPs’ expenses secret?
I’ve commented on the fate of the 21 Conservative MPs who voted against reform of Parliamentary expenses (in brief: nearly all of them have since had to pay back money or had an expenses scandal come to light).
That was one of two key votes where Parliament had had the chance to clean up its act [...]
MPs who opposed expenses reform: how did the three Labour MPs facing trial vote?
A footnote to my post about the subsequent expenses revelations regarding the 21 Conservative MPs who voted down expenses reform in 2008, before the Daily Telegraph revelations forced everyone’s hand. Of the three Labour MPs now facing criminal charges, two also voted against reform (David Chaytor and Elliot Morley) whilst the third, Jim Devine, abstained [...]
What happened to the 21 Conservative MPs who voted to block expenses reform in summer 2008?
As I wrote previously about the voting down in the summer of 2008 of plans to reform MPs’ expenses:
The bulk of the blame for blocking the reforms must lie with the Labour Party as 146 of their MPs voted to block the reforms but given David Cameron’s strident recent comments, it’s striking to see that [...]
The most improbable MP expenses defence: my bank told me to do it
It’s a toughly contested field. But I think we have a clear winner in the “most improbable excuse for expenses claims” stakes.
Step forward David Amess, Conservative MP for Southend West.
He previously took to hiding in a hairdressers to avoid answering questions about his expense claims, he was one of the MPs who voted to block [...]
MPs expenses: the details that you’ve probably missed
The headline recommendations from Sir Christopher Kelley’s review of MPs’ expenses have been widely covered. Despite this coverage, there is a series of detailed proposals which have been largely overlooked – including one which may yet put the leaders of political parties on the spot over cases involving their own MPs which they thought they [...]
MPs expenses: some MPs still don’t get it
If being brazenly out of touch with the public mood is your idea of being a top-notch MP, it’s time you started singing the praises of Ann Keen, Jacqui Lait and Harry Cohen. For as the Evening Standard reported yesterday:
Five London MPs are refusing to say if they are being asked to repay part of [...]
The one who got away: David Lammy and his expenses
London MP, with a constituency only 28 minutes away by Tube from Parliament, claims £12,041 for a second home. Sounds a straight-forward case in the long line of London MPs who had their expense claims widely publicised and heavily criticised during earlier this year? Except this time, there’s one difference.
The expense claim was published back [...]
