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Why are only backbenchers quitting?

By Jane Deith

Updated on 29 May 2009

All the MPs who have announced they are leaving parliament hail from the back benches but is there another law for the top? Jane Deith reports.

Parliament (Getty)

Gordon Brown promised a tough line against MPs who abused the system. But there is been no sign of any action against cabinet ministers like Hazel Blears, who have had to pay back the capital gains tax they avoided paying. And no-one has been sacked from the Conservatives front bench either.


Jon Snow interviews the Labour MP Tony Wright, who chairs the Public Administration Select Committee, and the Conservative MP Grant Shapps, who is in the shadow cabinet.

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