Reform of MPs' controversial expenses
Updated on 01 May 2009
MPs have agreed elements of their controversial allowances should be reformed but only after another Government climbdown.
Receipts will have to be submitted for all claims and MPs will be prevented from employing taxpayer-funded staff directly. The former was carried by 348 votes to 22, a majority of 326 in the Commons.
Meanwhile, Greater London MPs will lose their second homes expenses and those with second jobs will also for the first time be forced to publish details of their employers, earnings and the number of hours they work.
However, the most contentious issue - the £24,000-a-year second homes allowance available to all non-London MPs - will now be looked at by the independent Committee on Standards in Public Life.
It is a further rebuff for Prime Minister Gordon Brown who had to scrap a move to replace the allowance with a flat-rate attendance payment after his plans were savaged by both the Tories and Liberal Democrats.
But, facing a possible second defeat in just 24 hours, Commons Leader Harriet Harman announced ministers had withdrawn the proposal and bowed to demands that the issue be left entirely to a review by the committee.
The change of heart sparked anger and confusion in the Commons with MPs demanding that other issues, like declaring details of all outside earnings, should also be left to Sir Christopher Kelly's committee.
But Ms Harman insisted the public would expect MPs to take action now where they could, while leaving other matters to the Kelly committee.
This prompted shadow Commons leader Alan Duncan to protest: "We seem to be treading rapidly into realms of complete and utter lunacy."
Meanwhile, Labour backbencher Alan Simpson brandished a bath plug, claiming Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's expenses scandal had distracted from the real business of politics.
Leaked receipts of Ms Smith's allowances revealed she claimed 88p for a bath plug for her second home as well as claiming for a patio heater, a barbecue, a toothbrush holder and even a kitchen sink.
Mr Simpson said it was Parliament's failure to tackle the big issues that had left politics "degraded and devalued".
Waving the plug, he said: "I am very clear about the benchmark against which I would not want a single Member of Parliament to be judged and that is this - it is the bath plug. I find this absolutely offensive."
He joked: "I hope Members accept this implies no particular relationship between the Home Secretary and I."
Mr Brown announced his plan to ditch the controversial allowance in a YouTube video last week before discussing it with Tory leader David Cameron and Lib Dem Nick Clegg.
Both opposition leaders rejected the scheme as unacceptable, arguing that voters would see it as MPs being given a perk for turning up to work.
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