CABINET COLLEAGUES rallied to support Gordon Brown yesterday after the disclosure that he has suffered two minor tears in his retina prompted renewed scrutiny of his health.
The return of the spotlight to the prime minister’s health comes after he was controversially asked last month by the BBC’s Andrew Marr whether he was taking anti-depressants, following internet rumours.
Over the weekend Downing Street took the unusual step of revealing the results of medical check-ups on Mr Brown’s eye, citing “transparency”.
Mr Brown’s right eye was saved after he lost the sight in his left eye as a teenager in a rugby accident, but he needs regular check-ups.
A spokesman insisted the prime minister’s vision was fine and surgery was not needed.
Work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper said she had “never noticed any manifestation” of Brown’s eyesight problems and wondered “what all the fuss is about”. “The idea that we should be a country that writes people off from employment or senior positions just because of difficulties with their eyesight, I just think that is not the kind of country we want to be,” she told Sky News.
Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said Brown had been “brave” in disclosing details of his condition and “to say that that would make him unfit to be prime minister is not the sort of politics we should be indulging in”.
Meanwhile British MPs have begun to openly challenge the authority of the independent auditor charged with investigating expenses abuses at Westminster claiming that the civil servant’s inquiry had strayed beyond its remit.
John Mann, the MP who has led calls for a thorough overhaul of the allowances system, raised concern that Sir Thomas Legg’s audit of expenses had become too broad, and warned that this might trigger lawsuits that could drag on through the “entirety of the next parliament”.
The MP for Bassetlaw, who has been publishing his own expenses in full since 2004, warned that many MPs may “go to ground” rather than pay immediately, and then challenge the legality of the repayment demands.
In early July, Sir Thomas initially set out to examine cases where MPs used parliamentary expenses to improve their second homes in order to make a profit rather than just maintaining them, as rules allow. However, he has also looked at exploitation of loopholes which amounted to breaches in the spirit of the law.
Sir Thomas’s team is also said to have been particularly exercised by claims for gardening and cleaning. One source suggested he was to place a ceiling on claims of this sort; any MPs breaching that limit would have to repay the difference. This would include MPs whose expenses claims of this kind were approved by the fees office.
It is under these tight rules that the prime minister is likely to be asked to pay back some or all of his cleaning expenses.
Yesterday, Downing Street said Gordon Brown would repay anything asked of him, adding that up to 500 of parliament’s 646 MPs would also be asked for more information. – (Guardian service)