UK lawmakers told to repay disputed expense claims
LONDON — First it cost their reputations. Now it’ll cost them cash.
A scandal over British lawmakers’ excessive expense claims resurfaced Tuesday after an auditor ordered dozens of legislators — including Prime Minister Gordon Brown — to repay money they received from public funds.
“We’ve got to call an end to this and therefore people must abide by the decisions that are made and make the payments that are appropriate,” said Brown.
He promised new expenses rules currently being drafted would allow lawmakers to “say goodbye to the old days where things that happened should not have happened.”
Both Brown and main opposition leader David Cameron also hope voters will move on from the scandal, fearing the electoral fallout from a corrosive issue that has enraged the British public.
They’ve ordered lawmakers to repay questionable claims in hopes of restoring public trust. Neither man has tried to defend a freewheeling system that allowed legislators to claim reimbursements with little public scrutiny.
Public fury has simmered since lawmakers’ claims were disclosed earlier this year, initially via a leak to a newspaper. Taxpayers were furious to learn legislators had manipulated allowance rules for profit, and attempted to bill the public for porn movies, horse manure, moat cleaning, and an ornamental floating duck house.
Britain’s three main political parties were rebuked by voters over the issue in local and European elections in June, when many Britons either stayed away from polling booths, or backed minority parties.
“They’ve been taking from the poor and feeding themselves with it,” said Robert Ford, 58, of east London. “In short the game’s up. You couldn’t take it any further than they took it. It was an open check book for them and they exploited it.”
Thomas Legg, an ex-civil servant appointed by Brown to audit all expenses claims over the last five years, wrote to lawmakers Monday, asking many to repay money in claims he has deemed excessive.
Brown has pledged to repay more than 12,000 pounds ($19,000) for cleaning, decorating and gardening costs that Legg calculated were within Parliamentary rules, but overly expensive.
Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said he’ll repay 800 pounds (US$1,265) claimed for tree surgery in 2004, when he was a House of Commons lawmaker. Mandelson, a senior Labour Party figure, now sits in the House of Lords.
But some lawmakers insist Legg’s calculations are unfair, and may plan to challenge his repayment demands in court.
Legislators from outside London have previously been permitted to claim about 24,000 pounds (US$38,000) per year toward the costs of a second home — either near Parliament, or in the district they represent.
However, Legg has imposed new limits on what he says lawmakers should have reasonably charged on services including gardening and cleaning, and has imposed them retroactively.
It means that though they broke no rules, some lawmakers are being asked to repay bills which they believed at the time were permitted.
Labour legislator Bill Etherington said he won’t repay money claimed under rules as they stood at the time — and says he is prepared to go to court to defend himself.
Conservative lawmaker Anne Widdecombe told Sky News television there was “a big question over the legality” of Legg’s decision to impose the limits. Labour lawmaker Martin Salter told BBC radio that some lawmakers “feel very, very aggrieved … and may choose to mount a legal challenge.”
Martin Stocker, a 51-year-old salesman from Manchester, northern England, said he has some sympathy with lawmakers.
“It seems to be unfair to the MPs (members of Parliament) who followed the old rules, but are now being punished due to new regulations,” he said.
But Richard Thompson, a 59-year-old policeman from Hertfordshire, southern England, was less forgiving. “They’ve been caught and now they are squealing,” he said.
Two lawmakers have already quit the House of Commons as a result of the scandal, and at least 130 others have said they will not seek re-election.
Brown ordered Legg to audit claims made since 2004 and directed a second ex-civil servant, Christopher Kelly, to develop an entirely new system to reimburse lawmakers for legitimate expenses.
Cameron is equally eager to strike a solution, knowing many embarrassing claims — including bills for a mole catcher and cleaning work to the moat of a country estate — were submitted by members of his party.
Cameron has told legislators who refuse to cooperate with Legg they won’t be able to stand as Conservatives at the next election. Brown’s governing Labour Party said it could order those who decline to repay expenses to leave the party.
Associated Press Writer Rachel Leamon in London contributed to this report
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