BRITISH PRIME minister Gordon Brown has moved to defuse the growing controversy over MPs’ expenses by calling for a vote next week on the abolition of their “second home” allowance.
Tory leader David Cameron welcomed the prime minister’s initiative, while accusing Mr Brown of performing “a big U-turn” in following what he claimed was the Conservative lead.
A new row threatened last night, however, over the possible exemption of Northern Ireland MPs. Commons leader Harriet Harman confirmed that the government intends to ask the Committee on Standards in Public Life “to look at the circumstances in Northern Ireland” before “final application” of the proposed new flat-rate daily Commons attendance allowance.
With the DUP, SDLP and Ulster Unionists likely to be acutely embarrassed by any exemption, the suspicion in some circles is that the government’s concern may be to maintain the earlier concession allowing Sinn Féin MPs to draw hundreds of thousands of pounds in various office and secretarial, travel and London living allowances without taking their Westminster seats. Speaking after a meeting of the shadow cabinet, Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman Owen Paterson said: “I hope the committee on standards will agree with the then speaker Betty Boothroyd who said the House of Commons should not permit ‘associate membership’. All elected MPs should attend under the same conditions.”
While awaiting the detail, DUP leader Peter Robinson was reported as welcoming the broad principles driving Mr Brown’s reform package, which would also deny the new allowance to ministers enjoying the use of “Grace and Favour” homes and ensure that in future all MPs’ staff become direct employees of the House of Commons. This would give parliamentary authorities central responsibility for their employment terms and conditions, contracts and the payment of their salaries within allowed limits – and “the right to make an independent assessment of such contracts”.
Mr Robinson and his wife Iris, both MPs and Northern Ireland Assembly members, have recently been embroiled in the national coverage of this issue amid growing outrage at the ability of MPs and ministers, like home secretary Jacqui Smith, to maximise the benefit of the second home allowance.
Ahead of his meeting with Mr Brown to discuss the issue, Mr Cameron said he would be pushing for further reforms although there were “some real issues and problems” with the proposed daily allowance.
Overall, the Tory leader said he wanted to see the number of MPs and the cost of politics reduced.
Doubts about Ms Smith’s survival at the Home Office persist following the discovery that she had assigned a room in her sister’s property as her “main” home.