Michael Fabricant has called for an independent review of MP pay and expenses to restore public confidence in the politicians.
The Lichfield MP made his claim following a fiery edition of Question Time which saw politicians jeered and heckled by the audience.
Mr Fabricant has already moved to reassure his own constituents regarding his own expenses claims, but he believes the reasons for the whole fiasco are clear. He explained:
“This whole expenses problem has arisen not only from the greed of some MPs but also from a decison made many years back to break the automatic link between MPs’ salaries and civil service pay grades. When that link was broken, the system of allowances (or expenses) was built up by the House of Commons behind closed doors to compensate and allowances were treated as a substitute for pay. That was wrong.
“We now need transparency and we need an independent review of both pay and expenses with very clear rules. Once that is resolved, no-one – especially not any Prime Minister – should then break it otherwise we will revert to this mess all over again. The alternative of not reviewing pay as well as expenses is that we end up with a Parliament where the only ones who can afford to be elected are either Conservatives or Lib-Dems with an independent private unearned income and Labour MPs in the personal pay of trade unions. That would be turning the clock back to the bad old days and that is not good for democracy either.”
