House of Commons 'no longer a gentleman's club'
Gordon Brown says days of MPs being judge and jury of own pay and rations are over
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Tuesday, 19, May 2009 06:13
Gordon Brown has said the days of MPs being the judge and jury of their own pay and rations are over.
Two weeks of damaging headlines over expenses escalated further today with the resignation of speaker Michael Martin over his handling of the affair.
After a meeting convened by the speaker with the other party leaders, Mr Brown told journalists at Downing St changes to the system by which MPs decide their own pay and expenses had been agreed upon in principle.
"We must change the way that MPs are paid in a system that respects parliament's sovereignty and restores trust.
"These are interim measures bringing immediate changes and comprehensive measures to reassure the public."
Mr Brown said that a "keystone" reform of the system must be a switch from self- to independent regulation.
"The House of Commons is no longer a gentleman's club where members make rules and operate themselves.
"However objectively they try to behave, the public will always question MPs' transparency."
The prime minister, who said that additional cost allowance claims going back four years would be scrutinised and that anyone who made claims outside the rules must repay the money, concluded: "The only way forward now, and agreed upon by all opposition parties, is to switch to independent statutory regulation."