Liberal Democrats to improve transparency in MPs expenses

3.39.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 7th Jul 2008

148 Labour MPs, 21 Conservative MPs and UKIP's only MP united last Thursday night [3rd July] to vote down the proposal for an independent audit of all MPs' expenses claims.

No Liberal Democrat MP voted against the audit plans.

Commenting, Sue Doughty said:

"This decision by MPs is foolish and wrong. It is a disaster for anyone who believes in cleaning up our politics and improving Parliament's reputation. The House of Commons had the chance to vote for proper auditing of everything MPs do with public money, but an unholy coalition of Labour and Conservative MPs prevented it.

"I am deeply disappointed that Anne Milton MP was absent from the vote and so failed to show her support for proposals to toughen the guidelines and for MPs' allowances to be externally audited. 54 of her Conservative colleagues joined the Liberal Democrats and some Labour MPs in voting for independent auditing.

"Rarely a week seems to pass without a story in the press about MPs apparently fiddling their finances. The vast majority of MPs are not corrupt. But so long as they resist having their expenses and allowances subject to robust, external audit, the public can be forgiven for wondering what they have got to hide."

"So I really welcome the announcement by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg that we are committing to unilaterally introducing the recommendations of the Members Estimates Committee for independent spot checks of MPs expenses.

"It is good to see Liberal Democrat MPs setting an example and showing that they have nothing to fear from open, independent scrutiny of their expenses.

"I hope that the Labour and Conservative leaderships will follow Nick Clegg's lead in implementing these measures so that we can begin to restore public confidence in politicians."

The steps to be taken by the Lib Dems will include:

• Working with the Institute of Chartered Accountants to draw up detailed proposals to implement spot checks of expenses for Liberal Democrat MPs. The Liberal Democrat Chief Whip, Paul Burstow, will be meeting with the Institute of Chartered Accountants shortly to discuss these issues.

• Establishing an independently chaired Audit Board for the Party to oversee issues of probity and integrity.

• Publishing a detailed breakdown of expenses of all Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet members.

Related Link:

Details of how MPs voted.