http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axX_IvjO3jKo&refer=home‘Moral Failures’ Mean No Seat Safe for Lawmakers in Expense Row
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By Robert Hutton and Kitty Donaldson
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Gove, a Conservative representing Surrey Heath, 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of London, spent two hours in a standing-room-only meeting at a local church three nights ago apologizing for claiming reimbursement for a 500-pound ($780) hotel bill and 7,000 pounds for furniture.
It was “an error of judgment,” he said.
The crowd applauded when Philip Blakebrough, a lawyer, told Gove that he should quit. “You’ve mentioned honor,” Blakebrough said. “Isn’t the honorable thing to resign?”
Detailed reports of spending by U.K. lawmakers have triggered what may be the biggest scandal in the legislature’s eight-century history. They toppled a House of Commons speaker, Michael Martin, for the first time since 1695. And the public fury threatens incumbents with a rout in the next election, one the Conservative opposition was already favored by polls to win.
“There are no safe seats anymore,” said Philip Cowley, professor of politics at Nottingham University. “It’s at least the worst scandal since the 1920s, when the prime minister was selling honors. But this is more public and more widespread.”
One quarter of the 646 members of the House of Commons have featured in two weeks of reports by the Daily Telegraph, which highlighted reimbursements to representatives on items such as moat maintenance, massage chairs and swimming pool upkeep.
Politicians named so far include both those in Cabinet posts, such as Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon, and those on the way up, including Conservatives Ed Vaizey and Alan Duncan.
Travel Expenses
In addition, members have been claiming reimbursement for trips to homes far from London, where Parliament sits, or the districts they represent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg based on parliamentary expense reports.
For example, ConservativeMalcolm Rifkind received 3,066 pounds last year for flights to his home in Scotland -- although he represents a district just three subway stops from Parliament. Labour’s Rudy Vis, whose constituency lies 9 miles north of Big Ben, collected for driving 15,168 miles -- the equivalent of more than halfway around the world.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday that he expected “many cases” where legislators will lose their seats as a result of the disclosures in the next election, which he must call by June 2010.
The turmoil comes as Britain confronts its deepest recession since World War II, with unemployment at the highest since 1997. The revelations point to a backdoor way for lawmakers to supplement their 63,291-pound annual wage, equal to a little more than half of the $174,000 earned by U.S. members of Congress.
‘Bolstering Salaries’
The expense system became “a way of bolstering salaries” because legislators have been reluctant to vote themselves pay increases, said Stephen Driver, a lecturer in politics at London’s Roehampton University. The problem is that “Parliament is so secretive and so backward and so conservative in its culture and its work practices.”
Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron have tried to contain the fallout, with apologies and promises of tighter rules. Brown proposed an independent authority on May 19 to oversee pay and discipline, treading on Parliament’s ancient culture of self-governance.
Polls show the main parties losing ground to smaller groups with little or no parliamentary representation, such as the U.K. Independence Party, the British National Party and the Greens.
Forty percent of voters who would normally support Labour, the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats said they would vote for a smaller party in European Parliament elections next month, a ComRes Ltd. poll published May 17 showed. A BPIX survey released the same day showed Labour and the Conservatives each losing six points since the expense reports began May 8.
‘Moral Failures’
“Their errors haven’t been merely technical miscalculations or even honest errors of judgment,” said Nigel Biggar, director of the Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life at the University of Oxford. “No, they’ve been moral failures of public spiritedness -- and in public servants that’s a very serious failing indeed.”
Lawmakers who until two weeks ago were channeling outrage at bankers’ pay and bonuses have found themselves on the receiving end of the same anger.
Julie Kirkbride, 48, a Conservative, attacked financiers’ “greed and extravagance” in a March 16 speech. Her husband, Andrew Mackay, 59, resigned May 15 as an aide to Cameron after saying that he had been claiming for one of their two houses as a “second home,” while she claimed for the other. Since 2001, the pair received 282,731 pounds for maintaining the two homes, according to parliamentary numbers.
‘Within the Rules’
Mackay said he was acting “within the rules” and had cleared his claims with parliamentary authorities. The rules were drawn up by Parliament itself, something lawmakers now say was a mistake.
Among them is Gove, 41, who told the audience in the church that he gradually realized the problems with the system during his four years in Parliament. “The longer I’ve been there, the more the scales have fallen from my eyes,” he said.
While some listeners were hostile, others were receptive to his repeated apologies, applauding his answers. Only once was he heckled, when he said he acted “entirely within the rules.”
That assertion, made by many lawmakers named by the Telegraph, is what most angers voters, said Mark Chester, the vicar who chaired Gove’s event. “There’s a level of moral immaturity about it all,” he said. “And the trouble is that they’re legislating on big issues of morality.”
So far, two Labour lawmakers, Elliot Morley and David Chaytor, have been suspended from the party, after conceding they’d claimed interest payments on mortgages they’d paid off. Both called it a mistake.
Justice Minister
Another, Shahid Malik, stepped aside as justice minister while officials investigate whether he received a below-market rent. He denies wrongdoing.
On the Conservative side, Douglas Hogg, 64, said he repaid 2,200 pounds from a claim that included cleaning the moat at his country house. Michael Ancram, 63, said he has refunded money received for swimming pool upkeep. Hogg said this week he wouldn’t stand for re-election.
The Telegraph stories followed a four-year court fight by newspapers and citizens groups to require Parliament to release details of spending by members, instead of listing it in broad categories.
The London-based newspaper’s reports were based on receipts going back as far as 2004, which it obtained from a source it has refused to identify. The Times of London said on April 1 that it declined an offer from an unidentified businessman who was seeking to sell the receipts for 300,000 pounds.
Far From Districts
In March, Parliament did publish a more detailed than usual breakdown of members’ travel costs. From that, it’s possible to identify those claiming for travel to homes that are distant from their districts.
Anticipating the uproar, Rifkind, 62, said he stopped claiming for travel costs earlier this year. In addition to his flights, he was reimbursed for driving 4,100 miles in the year ended March 2008, mainly between London and Edinburgh, his expense report shows. Compensation for such travel costs had long been a benefit, on which he has always paid tax, he said.
“Whether it should be or not is a separate issue,” he said in an interview. “My claims have been entirely proper, but given the wider public concern at the moment, I took my own decision, two or three months ago, not to make use of this facility anymore.”
He won’t repay the money he’d previously claimed, he said.
Vis, 68, said in e-mailed response to questions that his mileage costs cover travel between London and his home in Suffolk, about 85 miles away, in addition to trips to his constituency.
‘Amazing’ Things
“It’s amazing some of the things they’ve given themselves over the years,” said Andrew Rawnsley, author of “Servants of the People,” a history of Tony Blair’s government. “Why on earth would you need to visit Scotland in order to represent people in London? It’s all within the rules, but it all repels voters.”
The sums involved are small relative to the government’s largest programs, such as the 63 billion pounds spent bailing out banks. In total, lawmakers claimed 11.6 million pounds for their second homes in the year to March 2008, and 6.2 million pounds on travel, according to Parliament’s figures.
In response to public complaints over the spending revelations, police and prosecutors said May 15 they’d convene a panel to assess whether to open criminal investigations.
Jerry Hayes, a former Conservative member of Parliament who’s now a lawyer handling fraud cases, says he believes some cases are ripe for prosecution, showing how lawmakers lost touch with the world outside.
“I don’t believe for a moment anyone thought they were doing anything particularly wrong,” he said. “They became institutionalized, like any prisoner does.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net; Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 20, 2009 19:10 EDT
