Honest MPs

One of the interesting features of the MPs whose expenses have been scrutinised has been to see those who have behaved honourably. Predictably, party leaders have not abused the system, but there are also honest back-benchers.

Margaret Moran definitely did not. The Labour MP for Luton South claimed for her family residence in Southampton, although her duties as an MP did not require her to spend any time there at all (the rules are quite explicit that the additional costs allowance is for necessary costs incurred in the performance of parliamentary duties). She argued that since her partner works in Southampton and she wants a family life, she should be allowed to claim for a house which makes that possible. I should like her to meet some junior medical friends of mine, who are separated for most of a week because one has been moved to work in a hospital in another city; the husband continues to work here in York. They don't get an allowance to rent a second flat, never mind to do maintenance work on a third home. Do MPs really deserve better treatment than people working on the front-line of the health service?

By contrast, today's Telegraph profiles the claims of Kelvin Hopkins (link), who is Labour MP for Luton North and lives on the same street as his constituency neighbour for Luton South. He claimed very little indeed, preferring to live in Luton and commute into London; he accepts that some colleagues may prefer to live in London, though, and the article concludes with his proposed solution,

Mr Hopkins, a lifelong socialist, added: “The system is ridiculous. I have signed an Early Day Motion calling for the nationalisation of all second homes. If the state owned flats and rented them out to MPs, there wouldn’t be any problems about second home allowances or switching homes from one place to another and you wouldn’t have these problems with capital gains tax.”

Kelvin Hopkins was a former trade unionist who took the view that he should be careful with public money; what a stark contrast with the reported comments of the Speaker of the House (Times), who allegedly said to a senior MP,

I have been a trade unionist all my life. I did not come into politics not to take what is owed to me.

We should be thankful that there are at least some MPs who have taken a view diametrically opposed to that of Speaker Martin, who by-the-by does not deserve the continued confidence of the House. And the trade union movement should be grateful for Kelvin Hopkins.