May 2009 12

Sign the petition on MPs' expenses14

H_Brooke_publicityshot_tiny Heather Brooke, the Freedom of Information Campaigner who won a High Court victory over the Parliamentary authorities to force the release of MPs’ expenses details, and the TaxPayers' Alliance have teamed up to produce a petition pressing for the immediate publication of all expenses receipts and guaranteed future transparency:

We the people call on the House of Commons authorities to immediately publish the full receipts behind MPs’ expense claims – including the crucial second home addresses. The House has had four years to prepare for freedom of information and there is no excuse for the obstruction and continued delays that have prevented the people seeing directly how our MPs spend taxpayers’ money.

We also call on the Commons authorities to commit to publishing these full receipts in future on a quarterly basis, excluding from publication only that material allowed by the High Court ruling of May 16th 2008 (i.e.credit card and bank account numbers).There should be an independent person allowed access to the full record to ensure no MPs are deleting information to avoid criticism or embarrassment.

You can sign the petition here http://www.petition.co.uk/publish_mp_expenses_in_full – and get code to link to it on your website. Please email it to all your friends and family, and link to it on your blog if you have one.

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  • Mr G Ball

    they should be put on an hourly wage like the rest of us

  • Paul Harvey

    The expenses scandal tells us more about the culture of MPs than the money involved.
    Hazel Blears re-paid £13,000 of expenses while Cambridge County Council lost £140,000 publishing a magazine telling us how good they are.
    Andrew Lansley repaid £2600 but Cambridge Matters Magazine lost ten times that amount in the last year.
    It’s time to focus on what really matters
    Paul Harvey
    Cherry Hinton
    Cambridge

  • Sheila Luke

    While the rest of us are struggling with the continuing rising prices, worrying about our kids losing their jobs and paying the mortgate, MP’s are taking us for fools and taking advantage of the system. What is worse is that some MPs are going beyond manipulating the system to their own ends, and are actually committing fraud, they are stealing public money by deception. They must be held accountable as we are whenever we are found to be late for a payment, or struggling to pay our council tax, has Big Brother not been watching them also, or are they immune, unlike the rest of us.

  • Margaret Smyth

    When are these MPs going to realise that they haven’t committed errors of judgement or been guilty of sloppy accounting, they have been misusing public money and should be prosecuted under ‘Malfeasance in a Public Office’ and lose their parliamentry seat. The people who have been signing off these expenses should also be fired and immediately! Morals – obviously MPs don’t have any.

  • Tim Beechey-Newman

    Unless Elliot Morley’s mortgage was an interest only arrangment, then he should have stopped claiming £800 a month long before the final payment. Therefore he would have ‘overclaimed’ far more than the £16,000 quoted…..

  • Russ Vickers

    is HM inspector of taxes investigating this abuse of expenses surely tax and national insurance should be paid on none allowable expense payments or are there more special rules for mps!!!!

  • Frank E. Wood

    I hear an MP vets MP’s expenses is this true?.
    If true is not that MP’s remit and him/herself in question for allowing these expenses claims?.
    The solution for a new pay and expenses agreement should be, without any hesitation or excuse, be on the Terms and Conditions of the Civil Service Pay and Condition of Service, as I had to as a civil servant employed by the MoD.
    Indeed all MPs guilty of abusing the system should, pay back every single penny and, as many ordinary public, be charged and suffer the consequences.
    Saying sorry should not allow any MP to be let off ‘scot-free’. And no MP deciding to retire or being sacked should not be allowed to retain all his/her financial gains and other expense claims and the second home in particular. If any MP sells his/her second home, paid for by the taxpayer, the sale price should not go in the MP’s pocket but returned to the taxpayer.

  • J.M Trowbridge

    As a pensioner on less than 9k and paying tax on 2.5k of that, plus paying council tax,tv lic, and every other expense myself, I am beyond angry, how dare they do this and expect us to vote for them, never again

  • Bex

    When will justice prevail?

  • Fred Critchlow

    Are these MPs who are paying big cheques back for capital gains tax etc going to be CHARGED interest for the .length of time they have had the money.

  • Geoff Roberts, 77a Abbey Road, Torquay, TQ2 5NN

    I think these revelations on MPs expenses should hail the beginning of swinging constitutional reforms.

  • James P Whitman

    It’s a pity that Gordon Brown’s Presbyterian values didn’t stretch to his having no problem flipping his main home in Scotland to his second home in order to maximise his expenses. The man is unelected and is worse than any benefit fraudster. He robbed our pensions whilst his own is unaffected and increased stamp duty on house sales to hideous levels knowing that that he would never have to pay it himself.
    Strange that when he has to make tough decisions it doesn’t actually affect him or his cronies.

  • SARAH

    im so angery too see that mps are getting away with using our tax money on thier own second homes, when we can barley afford one home.if we commited benfit fraud we would have to pay it all back or a prision sentance, so how come they get away with it???
    we need people who care about people, who are on low incomes who you seem to think its ok to put taxs up all the time, while you sit in your second homes.
    i hear your thinking of making us use 20,000 to our care if we need putting into a care home this is outragtous, there is no way i could afford that or a pention on low income and in rented accomendation. so what do they propose for us????
    but say you give them 20,000 for your care, you go into a care home and you die 3months later, WHERE DOES THIS MONEY GO???? OH I BET I CAN GUESS MPS POCKETS.TO BE HONEST I DONT TRUST ANY OF YOU TO GIVE YOU A PENNY, I DONT EVEN TRUST YOU WITH MY INCOME TAX LET ALONE THAT.

  • fred critchlow

    someone has been using my name in vain.MPs do a very demanding job and deserve every thing they can get. If you dont agree,simply stand for election, Put up or shut up.