Last summer an unholy alliance of Labour and Conservative MPs voted to block a series of major reforms to MP expenses, such as requiring receipts for all claims, having outside checks and major changes to the Additional Costs Allowance (ACA).
I commented on Dawn Butler’s role in this yesterday and on looking through the details of the vote it is good to see that all the Liberal Democrat MP voting went through the lobbies in favour of reform. Of course, the bulk of the blame for blocking the reforms must lie with the Labour Party as 146 of their MPs voted to block the reforms but given David Cameron’s strident recent comments, it’s striking to see that seven of his frontbenchers, and 21 MPs in total, voted to block reform when they had the chance. This was enough to see the measure defeated.
The 21 Conservative MPs who voted to block reform were:
David Amess
James Arbuthnot
Henry Bellingham
Brian Binley
John Butterfill
Christopher Chope
John Greenway
Gerald Howarth
Bernard Jenkin
Julie Kirkbride
Eleanor Laing
Andrew MacKay
Anne McIntosh
Andrew Rosindell
Hugo Swire
Sir Peter Tapsell
Angela Watkinson
Ann Widdecombe
David Wilshire
Ann Winterton
Nicholas Winterton
(Source: Public Whip, which also has the list of Lbaour MPs who voted to block reform)
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Interesting to note that UKIP’s one MP blocked reform as well.
Mark, I have posted about this on my blog too with specific reference to my MP Andrew MacKay.
I actually wrote to him about this last year. You can see in my post what his response/excuse was but the facts are he voted against better transparency and lo and behold when the expenses info was released he is in the worst crisis of his political career.
It is also interesting to note the following:
MP Year first elected
David Amess 1983
James Arbuthnot 1987
Henry Bellingham 1983
Brian Binley 2005
John Butterfill 1983
Christopher Chope 1983
John Greenway 1987
Gerald Howarth 1983
Bernard Jenkin 1992
Julie Kirkbride 1997
Eleanor Laing 1997
Andrew MacKay 1977
Anne McIntosh 1992
Andrew Rosindell 2001
Hugo Swire 2001
Sir Peter Tapsell 1959
Angela Watkinson 2001
Ann Widdecombe 1987
David Wilshire 1987
Ann Winterton 1971
Nicholas Winterton 1983
Which means that the Tories who voted against transparency had an average of 22 years service against an average of 16 years for a typical Tory or 14 years for an average MP. Unsurprisingly it seems the longer an MP is around (and the more Tory (s)he is) the more resistant to change they are.
Good points Mark and James; thanks for adding them.
Would there have been any “pairing of MPs” in that vote? My MP Edward Garnier (Con) abstained. But I do not know if he deliberately sat on his hands or paired up with another MP who would have gone through the opposite lobby.
Another (minor) Commons reform would be to record deliberate abstentions in Hansard
Binley’s my MP and a statement on his website says
“I have been on the 1922 Executive Committee which acts as the Conservative Party’s backbench professional body for 3 years and during that time I have highlighted this issue as one which will blow up in our faces and so it has. Furthermore, I have consistently called for the reforms outlined above and I continue to do so.”
One of the reforms he’s referring to
“we need to be totally transparent about the publication of our expenses every year”
I’m tired (been up all night) but that all seems a bit parliamentary to me. By which I mean dodgy…
It seems that Ms Kirkbride is determined to try and ride out the storm with some rather luke warm support from David Cemeron.
Unfortunately, it is not a different claim at all, Mr Cameron. Both husband and wife nave benefitted financially from the false claims and seem to have decided that, rather than pirchase a house in Bracknell, they would merely compensate themselves as they felt appropriate.
Mr Camercn may think that a 10,000 Tory majority is safe – history may show otherwise and, if he realises this, just watch him drop Ms Kirkbride as quickly as he can.
We dont need a public opinion – if the couple prefer, the Crown Court would be quite an appropriate way of deciding the matter – I suggest that she would step down first!