BBC Radio 4 19.5.09n UK
Cameron "99% certain" that he will accept the Kelly recommendations
• David Cameron MP, Leader of the Opposition
• Today, Radio 4 08:14
recommendations for expenses’ reform, added that he was going into
today’s meeting with other party leaders with the intention of
agreeing a system that is beyond reproach, and refused to call for
the Speaker to go.
He said his intention was to go to the meeting of party leaders and
the Speaker and agree “a system that is absolutely beyond reproach…
completely transparent, put in place now”.
He repeatedly refused to call for the Speaker to go, saying “an
opposition leader should not act alone in a party political way to
remove a Speaker”, but added, “clearly he has got a lot of questions
to answer”. He said on the motion on the future of the Speaker, “if a
number of people sign it should be debated".
He went on to say that the role of the Speaker isn’t the key issue,
and asked why all expenses weren’t already published online he said,
“I very much want that to happen – we have a capacity problem. I want
them published as soon as possible. Sunlight is the best disinfectant".
On his own party he said that where necessary “I will order them to
pay back the money – if they don’t pay it back they will have the
whip withdrawn. I may order the board of the party to carry out
reselections in certain constituencies. None of this is any good
without a general election.”
He added “I think I’ve put in place a very robust system between now
and Chris Kelly”, and said that he can’t guarantee that he’ll accept
all of the Kelly recommendations but he’s “99% certain we will put in
place what he says”.
He said that if Sir Christopher recommends that “any capital gains
that links to your mortgage interest payment should be rapaid I’ll be
happy to do that”.
08:40 BBC News
Mr Cameron later said that it would be wrong for one of the major
parties to try to “dethrone” the Speaker, and again called for a
general election.
“It wouldn’t be right for me to call for the Speaker to go. I have to
think about this as a leader of a party that wants to be the government.
“It wouldn’t be right for one of the major parties to try to dethrone
the Speaker. To drag him into party politics would not be right”.
He again called for a general election, and added that the government
is “actually paralysed, we actually need for the sake of our country
to have an election”.
Asked who was to blame for the abuses of expenses he said, “it was
both the system and the MPs. Where the law has been broke...the
prosecuting authorities should feel free to investigate”.
09:05 Breakfast, Five Live
Mr Cameron later said that having left the European People's Party
(EPP) the Conservatives will “be happy neighbours rather than
reluctant tenants” to it.
He said, “the idea that there can only be one group on the centre
right in the European parliament I don’t think is right”. He added
that he will announce the “team of parties” that will make up the new
group after the European elections and said it was important to be in
a group that shares views on European enlargement.
He called for a July general election and said, “do we really think this government is going to achieve anything in the next year?” He
added "calling for an election is not risk free for the Conservative
party".
Asked how he would approach the row over the future of the Speaker if
he were Prime Minister he said, “I would try and act on a cross party
basis. The Prime Minister, like the leader of the opposition, should
not unilaterally move against the Speaker”.
He said that in the cases of MPs claiming for mortgage interest after
the mortgage had been paid off, “the whip should be withdrawn, they
shouldn’t be in the party. If people have broken the law of the land,
there’s a good case for the police to take a look at them”.
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