British junior minister forced to repay €45k as expenses row rumbles on

A BRITISH junior minister announced yesterday he will return more than £40,000 (€44,586) in taxpayer-funded allowances, as the total repaid by MPs caught up in the expenses scandal passed the £100,000 mark.

Health Minister Phil Hope’s move came as Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on MPs to prove themselves “worthy of the public’s trust” by putting right mistakes made over allowances and creating a new system that will be seen as “wholly fair”. The Corby and East Northants MP said he will return £41,709 claimed for furniture and fittings for his second home, in an attempt to restore constituents’ confidence in his integrity.

In a subdued session of Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, Brown was challenged over his leadership in the expenses affair by David Cameron, who called for all MPs’ claims to be published online.

And MPs heard a warning from Tony Wright, the chairman of the Commons public administration committee, that the revelations published by the Daily Telegraph over recent days may mean history will remember them as “the Moat Parliament” or “the Manure Parliament”.

Brown told MPs: “Our responsibility is to create a system of MPs’ allowances that’s transparent and will be seen by the country as wholly fair. And we must prove ourselves worthy of the public’s trust.”

More than a million expenses claims by MPs over the past four years are now to be scrutinised independently in a desperate bid to restore public trust in politics. But Cameron questioned this approach: “If we just ask a committee whether everyone has obeyed the rules, it will take a long time and then I think we will find – surprise, surprise – that everyone has obeyed the rules.

He called for all MPs’ expenses to be published online and for the MPs’ £10,000 annual communications allowance to be axed.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg urged the prime minister to follow the practice of the Scottish Parliament and stop taxpayer-funded mortgages altogether.

Telegraph revelations revealed former Lib Dem party leader Menzies Campbell spent nearly £10,000 of taxpayers’ money refurbishing his London flat, and home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne claimed for a £119 trouser press.