This whole Legg report is a Gordon Brown ‘cock-up’. Legg has gone off wildly into orbit censuring MPs for claims validly made and validly accepted as correct. Retrospective laws do not apply elsewhere and they should not apply here.
The real people, who need not censure but prosecution, are getting away with it. There are not that many of them but they were swindlers - notably Jacqui Smith who has got off scot-free despite a six-figure over-claim based on a deliberate lie. Not even a repayment request. There are several others like her.
Meanwhile totally innocent MPs have been besmirched and cannot extract an apology from anybody. (One went to the Press Complaints Commission and they judged in his favour) Ann Widdecombe (see below) is right to castigate the press over this and by implication the public also who treat every smear as fact and don’t bother to check.
Christina
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CHANNEL 4 Blog 13.10.09
Legg ‘damns MPs as criminals’ but how many will revolt?
Author: Gary Gibbon
Forty to 50 Labour MPs are now [11.37 am] in Committee Room 11 at the Commons letting off steam with the Chief Whip and Harriet Harman.
It is a fuller briefing that was promised to MPs last night at the PLP explaining how we got into a position where MPs are being asked to pay back invoiced, cleared, claimed amounts they had been told were all within the rules.
They are hoping for co-ordinated action that will see Thomas Legg back down and stop making retrospective cash payback demands.
But many MPs will simply pay back the money to save, as they see it, what remains of their reputation and not join in a collective revolt.
I suspect Legg won’t be very keen to back down either and scanning the headlines will feel that he judged it about right.
MPs on all sides feel he has simply ridden an hysterical wave and is, in the words of one former Cabinet minister I spoke to, “damning us all as f***ing criminals”.
The mood in this place is easily as low as it was at the height of the Telegraph stories… quite a few Labour MPs specifically fingering Gordon Brown for demanding this audit then not keeping a tight enough grip on its remit.
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BBC NEWS 13.10.09
Has he got a Legg to stand on?
Nick Robinson
Last night in the Commons, I could not find an MP with a good word to say about the man asked to audit and cleanse their expense claims - asked by the Commons, mind.
Senior MPs with a legal background said Sir Thomas would not have a leg to stand on if his demands for repayments - based on rules he is applying retrospectively - ever came to court. They point to the fact that his remit invited him to assess claims by the "rules and standards in force at the time".
I have now obtained a copy of the document that all MPs have been sent by Sir Thomas which explains why he has acted as he has.
Sir Thomas says that "to interpret and determine the rules and standards" applying at the time was "not a straightforward task".
He points out that the Commons Fees Office frequently allowed "disproportionate claims" which "must be judged to have been in breach of the rules".
He notes that "in some areas, such as household furniture and equipment... the Fees Office did in fact impose... limits" - in other words, the infamous John Lewis list.
When it comes to mortgages, he says that "the upper limit of the allowance may normally be taken as the relevant and sufficient control" - in other words, those who "claimed to the max" for their mortgage do not risk having to repay money (unless, of course, their claim contained errors).
However, Sir Thomas notes that in other areas - cleaning and garden maintenance - "some limits must be regarded as having been place to prevent disproportionate and unnecessary expenditure from the public purse".
That is why Gordon Brown has a large cheque to write, whereas David Cameron does not. It is also why Labour MPs were cursing the PM last night for proposing - albeit with all-party support - the Legg Review.
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QUOTES from POLITICS HOME 13.10.09
Norman Baker MP, Liberal Democrat
Mr Baker said there were "clear errors" in the expenses review by Sir Thomas Legg, and said that Sir Thomas' investigation had been a rushed job.
He said that Sir Thomas had requested information from him for claims for mortgage interest, but insisted he had never claimed for his mortgage on expenses "as a matter of principle".
Several other Liberal Democract MPs had also been pressed for information about claims they apparently didn't make, he said, including one asked for repayment for a bed that wasn't claimed
Ann Widdecombe MP, Conservative MP
Ms Widdecombe said “there’s a big question over the legality of this” and added that she and a number of colleagues would be writing to Sir Thomas.
She added that in saying a repayment didn’t mean guilt Sir Thomas has shown an “understanding of the British press that is naive”. [and ignores the ‘lynch-mob’ mentality pof ther public -cs]
Sir Stuart Bell MP, Labour MP
Sir Stuart said a new word had been added to the MPs vocabulary, "retrospectivity" and that this was the point of grievance for the majority of members. He said many "felt it was wrong to change and put a cap on claims that at the time were validly made".
Sir Patrick Cormack MP, Senior Conservative MP
“I do think it’s terribly important we cool this a little. What we have got is a provisional assessment. My provisional assessment suggests I should pay back a very small amount,” he said.
“My reply will point out that I have only ever claimed what was legitimate, I have scrupulously followed the rules as they existed. Cleaning was specifically allowed on the claim form.”
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