Another expenses row and another cover-up.
Byline: LesReidMPs are at it again over thei expenses claims.
I'm not referring to more claims fo duck islands, or non-existent mort gages which damned a few. I mean there's been yet another cover-up over use of taxpayers' money which damns them all.
It comes despite pledges of openness and transparency from Gordon Brown and David Cameron made directly in response to a Coventry Telegraph investigation into censorship at the height of the scandal.
Tomorrow, auditor Sir Thomas Legg will publish what is expected to be a scathing report on his investigation into five years of MPs' expenses claims.
We will also learn the outcome of appeals lodged by at least 70 MPs against Sir Thomas's recommendation they pay back money.
Yet it has emerged we're not likely to be told the reasons they gave in lodging their appeals to former appeal court judge Sir Paul Kennedy. Parliamentary sources say we will only be told whether they will pay sums back, and the amount.
The whole appeals process had been shrouded in secrecy. There was no announcement of which MPs had appealed against Sir Thomas's findings in December. The only Coventry and Warwickshire MP among them was Rugby and Kenilworth Tory MP Jeremy Wright, as this newspaper revealed.
To be fair, he has at least sought to be open with his constituents, firstly by allowing local journalists access to his unedited expenses files last May, before the heavily censored versions for all MPs were published with those ridiculous big black marks covering up sensitive bits - ironically under "Freedom of Information" laws.
He also chose in December to give us a frank explanation why he was appealing against Sir Thomas's demand he pays back pounds 769.80.
His mobile phone bills claim was first uncovered by our investigation, and I put it to him that the Parliamentary Green Book rules were absolutely clear; that mobile phone claims were banned under "second home" allowance.
Tory whip Wright's appeal came despite earlier demands from Cameron that Conservatives should pay up to help becalm the public furore.
Wright, an ex-criminal law barrister, says Commons officials had sanctioned his phone claims, after he had queried them, as documents seen by us proved. He says it was cheaper than having a landline at his London flat. He broke rules, yet astonishingly his appeal has been upheld, discrediting the whole system.
The latest cover-up allows many MPs to avoid doing what Mr Wright has done in at least explaining why they appealed.
MPs may well blame the appeals process for the secrecy, just as last year they blamed the shadowy "Commons' authorities", who are governed by MPs themselves. They must take responsibility for again being selective about freedom of information when it suits them.
TORY general election hopeful Kevin Foster has found love - in the House of Commons.
No, not with David Cameron! On a recent visit, the city councillor was surprised to find on sale a Commons range of heart-shaped Valentines chocolates, marked "with love". It's all downhill after that Kevin!
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REPORT: Sir Thomas Legg
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| Publication: | Coventry Evening Telegraph (England) |
|---|---|
| Geographic Code: | 4EUUK |
| Date: | Feb 3, 2010 |
| Words: | 512 |
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