Anger over MP claims could force election

DISSOLVING parliament could be the only way to rescue MPs’ reputation amid growing public fury over the Westminster expenses gravy train, Gordon Brown was warned yesterday.

With yet more senior politicians embroiled in the latest tranche of claims revelations, a former Commons deputy speaker said an early general election was needed to save the “foundations of democracy”.

The call came as the House authorities mounted a desperate rear-guard action to shore up trust in the allowances regime. An independent audit unit is to be created – at a cost of £600,000 (€675,000) a year – to monitor claims.

Meanwhile, some “clean” MPs started venting their anger at colleagues over the scandal.

Lib Dem frontbencher Lynne Featherstone said she was “ashamed of my brethren”, insisting they were getting “due punishment”.

“You can or should be able, whatever your circumstances, be able to judge right from wrong,” she told Sky News.

Labour backbencher Kate Hoey laid into millionaire tourism minister Barbara Follett for spending £25,000 on security patrols outside her Soho home.

“I would need to have someone really convince me that an MP can claim that amount of money for personal security, when I know that in my constituency I have women who walk home late at night who would love to have somebody paying for them to have personal security,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

The Telegraph’s disclosures from more than a million leaked claims receipts over the past few days have indicated a bewildering array of tactics apparently employed by MPs to maximise their expenses.

The latest revelations included:

*Communities Secretary Hazel Blears escaped paying £18,000 in capital gains duty when selling a taxpayer-funded flat. &

* Work and pensions minister Kitty Ussher set out a two page wish-list of improvements to her house in the capital and merely instructed parliament officials: “Please pay as much as you are able!”

* Housing minister Iain Wright claimed thousands on furnishing for a second home, even though he had not yet bought a property.

* Cabinet Office minister Kevin Brennan apparently had a £450 television delivered to his family home in Wales – even though it was claimed on expenses for use at his London home.

* Five Sinn Féin MPs, who did not take up their seats in the Commons, received nearly £500,000 from taxpayers for running properties in London.

All those named stressed they had not broken any rules.