Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Clegg calls for wider expenses audit

Clegg calls for wider expenses audit
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has said the audit on MPs' expenses should be widened.

Sir Thomas Legg has attracted serious criticism by some members of parliament who claim his demands for them to repay expenses claims are unfair and in some cases illegal.

Mr Clegg, however, claims there should be even more scrutiny on MPs who dodged tax by switching their second home allowance – despite the fact the practice, known as 'flipping', was not in fact against the rules.

The Lib Dem leader has joined David Cameron and Gordon Brown in calling on all his party members to pay back whatever Sir Thomas has requested.

He said that while the audit had placed limits on household claims not enough had been done to clampdown on those MPs who claimed large sums of money through property deals.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph this morning, Mr Clegg said: 'I think most people expected the worst offences to come under the toughest scrutiny - MPs who avoided capital gains tax, claimed cash for mortgages that didn't exist or flipped their second home so they could claim for renovations on house after house.'

He added: 'Every single MP who flipped, avoided capital gains tax or claimed for non-existent mortgages must be forced to repay the money and held to account.

'I believe we need to get MPs out of the property game altogether; they shouldn't profit from taxpayer subsidies.'

The Lib Dem leader said that if Westminster wanted to rebuild faith in politics there could be 'no half measures – only fundamental reform will be enough'.

Sir Thomas has requested Mr Clegg repay £910 of the £3,900 he claimed for gardening between 2006 and 2009.

The party leaders are set to clash for the first time since the summer recess at prime minister's questions later today.ADNFCR-708-ID-19408034-ADNFCR

No comments:

Post a Comment