alwaysperfectlywrite

I’ve just learned - via The Daily Telegraph of course - that one of our local MPs, David Chaytor,  (Bury North) has been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party following disclosures that he claimed almost £13,000 in interest payments for a mortgage he had previously paid.

Mr Chaytor, for whom I voted in 2005, swiftly admitted to having made an ‘unforgiveable error’ but the suspension follows a parliamentary watchdog investigation into his expenses’ claims, which also involved “flipping” the addresses of his designated second home. When the disclosures were first made last night, the MP not only referred the matter to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards himself, but also said that he would repay the money.

The new Mayor of Bury, Tory Councillor Sheila Magnell says Mr Chaytor has let down his constituents. ”The people of Bury will be very upset by this. There are people struggling on low wages, losing their jobs and with [real] mortgages to pay – and so they are going to be very upset. When we knock on doors and canvass people, we regularly get people saying ‘you are only in politics for what you can get out of it’, but that is simply not true. However, when things like this happen, you cannot blame them for thinking that.”

Mr Chaytor, along with other MPs who are alleged to have abused the system, may also face a criminal inquiry. He has claimed for five different properties since 2004 and has “flipped” his designated second home between London, Yorkshire and Bury.

Apologising for his actions, he said: “In respect of mortgage interest payments, there has been an unforgivable error in my accounting procedures for which I apologise unreservedly. I will act immediately to ensure repayment is made to the Fees Office.”

I was unaware until I read the Daily Telegraph’s online report a few moments ago that last month Mr Chaytor held a public meeting locally so that he could be quizzed by townspeople about his expenses.

He then said: “I am a great believer in freedom of information. Constituents should be informed as fully as possible over where their money is being spent. “The enquiry [into general MPs’ expenses] may lead to an overhaul of the expense system to make it more simple, fairer and more transparent. I would welcome that. What we are ultimately discussing is how the people’s money is spent, so it is only fair they are given an opportunity to find out how it is spent. “If someone makes a serious mistake (with the spending of their money) then recognition and coming clean is the only way forward.”

The Telegraph reported further that the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have set up a panel to assess the allegations of the misuse of expenses. This could, in turn, lead to a full-scale inquiry by Scotland Yard. Labour’s national executive is also considering proposals to deselect MPs who have made improper expense claims and to bar them from standing at the next election.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has given Labour MPs until Monday night to make sure that their expenses for the past five years are lodged with the parliamentary authorities and are ready for publication.

I don’t believe this directive goes back far enough and ought to include everyone still living who has ever sat as an MP. Indeed, if readers don’t mind a moment’s flippancy, it has been noted that as parliaments are often given a soubriquet, this one should be dubbed “The Wicked Parliament”. But I will leave further  leaden humour to the sketch writers.

Instead I will explain that I feel personally betrayed by Mr Chaytor who, along with Ivan Lewis, his colleague in Bury South, I have long regarded as a thoroughly decent and hard working man happy to work on the back benches for his constituents. I did not see him as the type of person who would essay a tawdry exercise in damage limitation when found with his paws in the biscuit tin.

Indeed on the few occasions we have met, I found him genuinely anxious to please. He took time from his schedule some years ago to write a short piece for our synagogue newsletter at my request and agreed that there should be a ‘Jewish presence’ on the Bury Committee for Climate Change which he initiated.

However, I stopped attending the sessions when I felt that someone, somewhere had a reason not advise me that a meeting had been rescheduled and I made an abortive trip to Bury on a cold, dank morning only to discover that it had taken place the previous week.

More generally, although I’m sure that all the named MPs are wholly culpable for their misdemeanours, I am left wondering again how they were permitted to behave so badly. In the matter of mortgages, for example, why did the Parliamentary Fees Office not demand to see relevant paperwork? Without wishing - or indeed able - to point a finger at any official - I have to ask if the real villain is not instead someone within the Fees Office - who has allowed these satirically absurd payments to have been made in return for a healthy consideration to him - or herself? Please understand, Your Honour, I ask this question simply in the spirit of free and fair enquiry.

And why I did I begin this post with the frightening video sent to me courtesy of the ‘Hope Not Hate’ Campaign? Well, just think what dreadful void will be left if all the those MPs accused of wrong-doing are de-selected en masse before the European elections in June.

msniw

Trackback URI | Comments RSS