Former Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West Stephen Williams found himself on a list released by IPSA, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, of 26 MPs and former MPs who had had debts to them written off. He was the only Liberal Democrat to appear on the list. The BBC report said that he owed £209.18.
Stephen took to Twitter to tell a journalist from Sky News that there had been an error and that he did not owe any money.
@DMcCaffreySKY No. All clear with them. They may have allocated something to wrong heading, a very common error. I don’t owe anything.
— Stephen Williams (@swilliamsmp) September 10, 2015
Let’s hope that IPSA properly reviews this. If an error has been made, an apology should be issued.
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4 Comments
How can I go about exposing IPSA for the £47 they own me!
You just did, Adrian:-).
I understand that one way these debts could arise is by IPSA paying the MPs official credit card bill and these disallowing some of it. They then ask for repayment 4 times, which of course would take place during the summer break and include the period when some concerned were looking for new jobs outside parliament or settling is as new ministers.
Sums as low as £10 and £7.50 were quoted.
Sort of non-story, unless of course it formed the basisi of a political attack.
When such small sums are involved it’s ridiculous to ‘name and shame’ MPs like this. IPSA also got it wrong about Edward Timpson. Nothing like this should be made public until MPs have had a chance to check that there has not been a simple error and, even then, if it’s a small sum. I don’t think we necessarily all need to know. We live in an increasingly controlling and regulated society – with institutions ready to jump on anyone who does the slightest thing ‘wrong’.