Speaker's dilemma
- 27 Feb 08, 08:22 AM
A dilemma faces the Speaker and the cross party group of MPs on the . Should they accept last night's which ordered the publication of a detailed breakdown of MPs’ second home allowances or fight it in the courts?
A senior Commons source told me that they were ready to accept the need to breakdown expenses by category - heat, light, rent, furniture… etc. That, though, is not what's being ordered. The tribunal want the receipts to be made public so that the prurient will be able to know who went to Ikea and who to Harrods for their sofa. It will also reveal the addresses of MPs unless there are specific security reasons not to.
More worryingly for some it would reveal who had made regular and profitable use of the lax rules which allow £250 claims without receipts and £400 per month for food which, the tribunal hearing revealed, could be spent on an iPod rather than lasagne without anyone knowing. Although the ruling applies only to a handful of high profile MPs - some of whom have now left the Commons such as Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson - it would swiftly be used as a precedent to apply to all in the Commons.
There are only two possible escape routes I can see. Firstly, FOI campaigners tell me that the Commons destroys financial records regularly rather than keeping them for years. A legal delay may mean that the receipts and the lack of them can no longer be revealed. Secondly, in certain circumstances, the Speaker has a veto on FOI requests. It does not appear to apply in this case but that's what lawyers are paid for, isn't it?
