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Relative satisfaction

  • Michael Crick
  • 1 Feb 08, 06:39 PM

It’s nice to see that all three of the major party leaders now seem to be adopting a proposal I made more than four years ago to the then Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Sir Philip Mawer – that MPs should have to state of the Register of MPs Interests if they employ any members of their families.

Michael CrickI made the proposal in the autumn of 2003, during the so-called Betsygate episode, when I passed on to Sir Philip serious allegations I had received form senior Tories to the effect that the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith was employing his wife Betsy as his secretary, and paying her from his Parliamentary allowances, but, it was alleged to me, she was doing little or no work. After a long and extensive enquiry the allegations were dismissed, and Sir Philip concluded that Mrs Duncan Smith had in fact been working for her husband on parliamentary business.

I made my proposal for greater disclosure because I suspected – despite the judgement on IDS – that there was a significant amount of abuse by MPs in this area. If MPs had to say publicly if they were employing their spouses, children and so on, then, I reckoned, they might think twice about allowing them to do little or no work. Other people have gone further than me, arguing that MPs ought to declare the names of all staff employed from public funds.

My suggestion was roundly ignored – by Sir Philip, by the Standards and Privileges Committee, by the Speaker and the Parliamentary authorities, by the media, and by MPs and the political parties.

Now, with today’s scramble by the party leaders to outdo each other in transparency on all this, I am having to revise again the number of MPs who were employing family members. On Wednesday night I said it could be up to a hundred. Last night, when Newsnight published its list of 79 names, I said it was probably well over a hundred. But on today’s evidence it looks like it could easily be as many as 250. David Cameron has said the Conservatives now reckon more than 70 of their 193 MPs employ family members – almost 40 per cent - while Nick Clegg says there are at least twelve Lib Dems.

parlynight203.jpgNewsnight’s list of 79 names has now crept up to 81, with the addition of Martin Caton, and the Speaker Michael Martin, who employs his daughter Mary on a part-time basis. Of our 81 names, 47 are Labour, 25 Conservative, 8 Lib Dems, plus the Speaker. And given the figures David Cameron and Nick Clegg have produced today, we can calculate that the very minimum number of MPs who employ family members is now 140. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to think the Labour total could eventually climb from 47 to 150, hence my new estimate of around 250.

David Cameron says the Conservative front bench will all have to declare the own circumstances on this by 1 April. Fine – but why wait two months? Why not tell by 12 noon on Monday?

Comments  Post your comment

Michael,

"Why not tell by 12 noon on Monday?"

Why not indeed?

Keep at 'em!
xx
ed

SOBVIOUS

Time needed to bury the booty muddy the trail and marshal the excuses.
"So are they all - honorable men."

  • 3.
  • At 06:42 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • Nik Horne wrote:

Testing from News Interactive 24/7 support.

  • 4.
  • At 06:45 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • Nik Horne wrote:

Testing internally.

  • 5.
  • At 09:20 AM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • stevie wrote:

Thank heavens for Michael Crick...what a ferret. We should be thankful we have journalists with his tenacity and grateful to Newsnight for making him political editor. It is rare today in this ever cynical world to have met so much outrage over this issue. People are really miffed at all this abuse and the sorry thing is that it is all so blatant, as though they have a right to abuse public funds. Go get 'em, Michael

  • 6.
  • At 11:14 PM on 07 Feb 2008,
  • Velma Lyrae wrote:

Debating Arch Bishop of Canterbury Debating Arch Bishop of Canterbury why does he want to include Moslem law? this is the question - what is his motive? He is Head of the Church of England whose Churches have been contracted to house Ministry of Defence 3G Masts in 16,000 of our Churches in England - the actual funding for these Masts are from Iranian Brothers the Tchenguiz Brothers. The money to build Masts (around 1 million per year) from effectively Iran has no agreement built in for paying back - perhaps the payback comes in another way!!??? Spread the Muslim Religion? Law?(information from Company House Quinetic received the money who are subsidiary Military of Defence.ar) from effectively Iran has no agreement built in for paying back - perhaps the payback comes in another way!!??? (information from Company House Quinetic received the money who are subsidiary Military of Defence.

  • 7.
  • At 09:43 AM on 08 Feb 2008,
  • wappaho wrote:

Velma, that's very interesting. I am thinking along the same lines. Blair is determined to have a legacy, Palestine, and then to become EU president. It is too tempting for words to deduce that, given the way BAA bribe to Saudi was brushed under tha carpet, that some other deals are going on. Just imagine if Britian became the one EU 'state' that follows sharia law:

1. that would give the Saudis a 'foothold' in the west akin to the US-UK foothold in the middle east (Israel - a judaeo(christian) state)

2. it would take the pressure off all other euroepan countries who clearly are no more enthusiastic about unpicking their cultural histories in order to provide muslims with the 'rights' that they claim in a very persistent and threatening manner.

problem solved - europeans have no time for the brits and ex-thrid world countries see us as the oppressor (they're wrong but they'll find that out when they have to deal with the bush-bliar-bin laden cartel that will control the West - from the euphrates to the rocky mountains

amen to britishness, the british race and the democracy and emancipation that britain created

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