Blyth MP volunteers to repay £6,200 expense claim

May 12 2009 by Will Green, The Journal

Sketch: No chance of an apology from the speaker

"WE kept within the rules." That’s been the increasingly plaintive and threadbare defence of MPs in the row over parliamentary expenses.

As they have been driving a ride-on lawnmower, let alone a water pipe under a tennis court, through the rules, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, had finally had enough.

But unlike Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, who yesterday all apologised to the voters, the Speaker appeared more concerned with protecting MPs from greater outside scrutiny of their expenses than safeguarding the public from further abuse.

The main target of his anger was not the errant MPs who have brought the whole of parliament into disrepute and infuriated the public struggling with economic recession.

Instead he lashed out at the Daily Telegraph newspaper – which for the past four days has entertained the nation with the breathtaking scale of parliamentary expenses claims; the unknown Commons employee who leaked all the details of the expenses claims for a reported six-figure sum; and two MPs who questioned whether the Commons authorities had been too slow in releasing the full expense claims and were now going over the top in calling in the police.

The word sorry had until recently always been the hardest word for Gordon Brown – though he is now finally finding it easier to say as his government staggers from crisis to crisis. It is a lesson the Speaker could take to heart as his sorry term in office reaches new depths.