Gordon Brown announced a vote on MP's expenses on YouTube
By Sam Macrory, Editor of The House Magazine.
With a rictus smile
strangely out of
sync with the
seriousness of his announcement,
Gordon Brown
cheerfully told his virtual
Youtube audience last
Tuesday that there would
be a Commons vote on MPs’
expenses this week.
Rather like his upbeat delivery, it looks
as though he may have been a touch
over-optimistic.
His attempt to seize a march on the
issue centred on a proposal to axe the
controversial second homes’ allowance
– which can be worth up to £24006 –
and replace it with a daily allowance –
which could reach £150 – that MPs
could claim only on the days that Parliament
is sitting. Following meetings
with the prime minister, both David
Cameron and Nick Clegg rejected his
ideas. “What he's effectively doing is
replacing a system where you have to
produce some receipts with a system
where you get the money without
having to produce any receipts” Cameron
commented
The plans are certainly a damning
assessment of MPs’ ethics, effectively
telling the electorate that at the next
general election they will be voting for
candidates who will be responsible
for making laws but are unable to
operate an expenses system without
the requirement to stamp in and out
on a daily basis.
Closer analysis of the figures also
show that a daily claim of the maximum
amount – and Peers in the Upper
House are able to take home as much
as £174 a day – would result in a
figure not far below the maximum
second home allowance.
The apparently rushed announcement
has also been dismissed by the chairman
of the Committee on Standards in Public
Life, Sir Christopher Kelly – who is
conducting a long term review into
expenses. "I have warned on numerous
occasions that this is not something
that can be solved by a quick fix,” Sir
Christopher commented last week.
Having previously urged delay himself,
and with Sir Christopher’s
review long-planned, Brown’s decision
to leap in front of the Downing
Street cameras – just 24 hours
before the all-important Budget
speech – seems as odd as his disarmingly
upbeat performance.
The obvious logic is one of moral oneupmanship;
the other parties can be
painted as stalling on an issue that the
prime minister – the man who vowed
“bring government closer to the people”
in his first weeks in office – is prepared
to grapple with, and a daily allowance
scheme is easy to explain to an
increasingly cynical electorate.
Then there is the timing, a day before
a budget – in which the income tax
rate was raised to 50 per cent for high
owners – that has bee interpreted by
many, no doubt to the prime minister’s
delight, as a reopening of class warfare.
The inclusion of a plan for secondary
incomes to be fully disclosed chimes
with this theme, with a greater proportion
of Tory MPs set to be affected by
this proposal.
Cameron won’t want to be seen to be
on the wrong side of this argument,
but he has vowed to vote against the
complete reforms package – as has Nick
Clegg- and the prime minister will no
doubt paint them as running scared.
First he will need to backing of his
party first.
The rushing of the plans have left heads
been scratched across Westminster; one
thing is certain – expect to find more
bath plugs and barbecues when the up
to £1m of expense claims are published
this July.
* The House Magazine, partenaire britannique de La Revue
Parlementaire, a été créé en 1976 par un groupe de députés afin
de traiter et débattre de l’ordre du jour parlementaire de manière
impartiale mais incisive. Il est depuis 30 ans l’hebdomadaire des
parlementaires britanniques.
