Sinking in polls, British PM vows expenses clean-up

BRITISH prime minister Gordon Brown vowed to establish a code of conduct to “clean up” the expenses system as polls showed support for his ruling Labour party at historic lows.

“We’ve got to clean up the system, we’ve got to change it for good,” Brown told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show yesterday. “I want an act of parliament, a constitutional reform bill, which will set out a code of conduct for MPs.” A poll commissioned by the Sunday Telegraph showed Brown’s Labour has fallen behind the country’s two main opposition parties for the first time since 1987, while a Times poll said support for Labour was at its lowest in polling history.

Over the past three weeks the Telegraph newspaper has published the expenses claims of about 220 of the 646 members of the House of Commons. The paper highlighted reimbursements on items such as moat maintenance, massage chairs and swimming pool upkeep. One MP, Labour lawmaker Frank Cook, tried to claim on expenses a £5 donation made at a church service, the newspaper reported.