Lib Dem MPs To Open Up Expenses For Public Scrutiny

10.43.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 6th Jul 2008

Local Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate, Richard Burt has welcomed party leader Nick Clegg's commitment to public scrutiny of MPs expenses. The pledge came after Labour and Conservative MPs voted down a number of proposals to open up MPs expenses to independent audit and public scrutiny.

Richard Burt said: "Nearly everyone I speak to in Worcestershire tells me that they are fed up with MPs who seem to have their snout in the trough.

"Rarely a week passes without a story in the press about parliamentarians apparently fiddling their finances. The vast majority of MPs are not corrupt. But so long as they resist having their expenses and allowances subject to robust, external audit, the public can be forgiven for wondering what they have got to hide.

"I welcome the announcement by Nick Clegg that our party is committing to unilaterally introduce proposals rejected by Parliament last week, including independent spot checks of the expenses of the all Liberal Democrat MPs.

"Every Liberal Democrat MP will also publish a quarterly breakdown of their expenses, and party leaders will establish an independently chaired audit board to oversee issues of probity and integrity.

"It is good to see Liberal Democrat MPs setting an example and showing that they have nothing to fear from open, independent scrutiny of their expenses.

"I hope that the Labour and Conservative leaderships will now follow our lead in implementing these measures, and we can then begin to restore the badly damaged public confidence in politicians.