MPs' expenses: Gordon Brown apologises 'on behalf of all parties'
• PM's comments follow yesterday's apology by David Cameron
• Brown says 'wrongs' need to be addressed immediately
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 May 2009 16.18 BST
Gordon Brown today apologised on behalf of all politicians for the public outrage over revelations about MPs' expenses.
Taking his cue from David Cameron, who delivered a blanket apology of his own yesterday, the prime minister said that he wanted to show that "people who enter our profession are there to serve the public interest, not serve themselves."
Michael Martin, the Commons Speaker, today proposed "serious change" to the system of MPs' allowances amid mounting public fury over claims exposed on all sides of the house.
In a statement to parliament, Martin said there would be independent auditing of MPs' claims in future.
"But working to the rules and the rules alone isn't what is expected of any honourable member," he told them.
"It is important that the spirit of what is right must be brought in now."
An "operational assurance unit" was being set up to provide independent oversight of claims.
Politicians from all parties are appalled by the damage that the stories about expenses claims have done to the reputation of politics and parliament. The revelations show that some MPs, while acting within the rules, have apparently been able to use the system for personal gain and not just to cover their costs.
In a speech to the Royal College of Nursing conference in Harrogate earlier, the prime minister said there were "wrongs" that needed to be addressed immediately.
"I want to apologise on behalf of politicians, on behalf of all parties, for what has happened and for the events of these last few days," Brown said.
He spoke out as the Conservative party found itself in the firing line on this issue for the first time. The Daily Telegraph, which started publishing details of MPs' expense claims on Friday, today for the first time devoted the bulk of its coverage to expenses claims made by Tory frontbenchers.
David Cameron, who also spoke at the Harrogate conference this morning, told nurses that politicians had failed to uphold their responsibilities.
In a speech calling for a society in which "everyone understands that life is about 'we', not just 'me'", the Tory leader declared that it was "not just morally desirable but politically essential that our representatives set a good example".
Cameron said: "It is the responsibility of those we elect to behave properly. Not just legally, not just within the rules, but to the highest ethical standards. People who stand for public office put themselves forward as people who will rule over the rest of us."
Some Tories are accused of "flipping" their homes – changing which house is designated a second home – in order to maximise the benefits they can claim. The shadow ministers under pressure are:
• Michael Gove, the shadow schools secretary and a member of Cameron's inner circle, who spent more than £7,000 furnishing a London property in 2006 before "flipping" the second-home designation to a new one in his Surrey Heath constituency.
• Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, who spent thousands of pounds renovating a thatched Tudor country cottage before selling it. He then moved the second-home designation to a London flat.
• Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the Commons, who chairs the Commons audit committee which oversees MPs' expenses, and had a claim for £3,194 for gardening expenses declined in March 2007. He says this happened after he raised the matter with the Commons authorities.
• Francis Maude, the shadow cabinet office minister who is leading the Tories' preparations for government, who tried to claim mortgage interest on his family home in Sussex. This was declined by the Commons fees office.
• Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary and another member of the Cameron circle, who claimed for the renovation of a London flat that is 17 miles from his family home.
• Cheryl Gillan, the shadow Welsh secretary, who claimed for dog food. She has agreed to repay the claim.
• Oliver Letwin, who is in charge of the Tories' general election manifesto and charged £2,000 to replace a leaking pipe under a tennis court. The pipe was not related to the court and Letwin was obliged to mend the pipe after an order from the local water authority.
• David Willetts, the shadow universities secretary, who claimed more than £100 for workmen to replace 25 light bulbs at his home.
All the shadow ministers issued detailed statements declaring that they had acted within the rules or, in the case of Gillan, apologising and offering to refund the money. One Tory source said that no rules had been broken, but added: "We have a perception problem."
The series of statements – and Cameron's apology – showed the Tories were well-prepared. They were told on Friday the Telegraph's focus would turn to them today, though they were not informed about the individual claims until 11am yesterday. Labour was not told about the Telegraph series until 3pm on Thursday, hours before the publication deadline.
The focus on the Tories is likely to turn the expenses leaks into a wider crisis for the political classes.
The impact was highlighted by Lord Naseby, a former Commons deputy speaker, who said the leaks were so damaging that parliament might have to be dissolved. "It's dreadful. It is quite awful," the Tory peer told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.
"I think, frankly, if this runs and runs, then parliament should be dissolved; I think they have to start again. The great British public has lost their confidence and I think that it is extremely serious. And if it is that serious then there is only one way of dealing with it, that is to dissolve parliament."
His remarks came as Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, faced a fight for her political life after apparently making contradictory declarations about a publicly subsidised flat to avoid an £18,000 tax bill.
Blears appeared to have avoided paying capital gains tax when she sold a flat in Kennington, south London, in August 2004 for £200,000, making a profit of £45,000. To avoid paying tax of about £18,000 on the profit, she would have had to declare the flat to the Inland Revenue as her main residence.
But in April 2004 she designated the Kennington flat as her second home to the Commons authorities. This allowed her to claim mortgage interest payments on it of £850 a month. Blears said yesterday she had done nothing wrong. This morning, Downing Street said the prime minister was satisfied with the explanations given by Labour ministers for their expenses claims.
"The prime minister has seen all of the explanations from the different ministers and he is satisfied with those explanations," a spokesman said.
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