MPs to pay back £1.12 million in expenses
'Sobering' MPs expenses audit published
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Thursday, 04, Feb 2010 05:37
By Richard James.
The long-awaited report by auditor Sir Thomas Legg into MPs expenses has ordered a total of £1.12 million to be repaid.
The former civil servant accused MPs of fostering a "culture of deference" and called for 390, over half the number of serving members of parliament, to make repayments.
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A total of £1.3 million was ordered to be repaid, reduced to £1.12 million on appeal, with some £800,000 having already been repaid voluntarily, with the leaders of all three main parties calling for their MPs to make the payments.
Commenting on the additional costs allowance (ACA), Sir Thomas said the rules had been "vague" and declared there had been a lack of transparency.
"The ACA was deeply flawed. In particular, the rules were vague, and MPs were themselves self-certifying as to the propriety of their use of the allowance," the executive summary of the report declared.
"Taken with the prevailing lack of transparency and the 'culture of deference', this meant that the fees office's decisions lacked legitimacy; and many of them were in fact mistaken."
Click here to read the full report
Three MPs were ordered to pay over £40,000, with Labour MP for Stevenage Barbara Follett told to pay the highest total of £42,458. She has, however, already paid £32,976.17 since April 1st.
Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin was originally ordered to pay back the greatest amount, some £63,250. However this was later reduced on appeal by £27,000 and he has since paid back £36,999.17.
It was also revealed today though that of the 74 MPs who challenged Sir Thomas's original demands, 44 have had their appeals either wholly or partially upheld - equating to £180,000 in claims.
Sir Thomas has faced something of a backlash after his initial findings were revealed, with many complained the auditor has applied stricter standards retrospectively criticising expenses claims that were approved at the time.
Sir Paul Kennedy was put in charge of hearing the appeals and his findings were also released this morning.
The expenses scandal first blew up in spring last year when the Daily Telegraph got hold of details of hundreds of claims and systematically published them for weeks on end.
The Crown Prosecution Service is still considering files on six MPs and their expenses claims and whether to bring criminal charges.
Sir Thomas's audit looked at claims made between 2004 and 2008 and has come at a cost of £1.6 million to the taxpayer.
The main political parties have been desperate to restore public trust in parliament in the face of widespread public anger at the scandal.
On Tuesday Gordon Brown unveiled a series of measures earlier this week promising a "new politics" in the future.
Commenting on the expenses scandal earlier this morning, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said the report would remind people of the "appalling, dismal, petty, unforgivable errors that were made".
He added that that he hoped Sir Thomas's final report would allow Westminster to draw a line under the affair and move on.
MPs identified by Sir Thomas who have not already repaid money in full have until February 22nd to do so.