Luff hits out after rejection of MPs expenses reform
12:00pm Saturday 5th July 2008
MID-WORCESTERSHIRE MP Peter Luff says he is “unspeakably angry” after Parliament rejected a package of measures to reform its expenses system.
The Tory MP said his fellow MPs “got it so badly wrong” on Thursday night when they voted to keep the controversial Additional Costs Allowances (ACA) scheme, which allows them to claim up to £24,000 a year in expenses to cover the costs of running homes both in London and in their constituencies.
The defeated reform package – supported by Mr Luff and West Worcestershire MP Sir Michael Spicer – would have seen the ACA scheme replaced with a £19,600 allowance to cover MPs’ accommodation costs, along with a flat subsistence payment of £30 per day.
It would also have meant an end to the so-called ‘John Lewis list’ under which MPs can claim for items of furniture and home improvements for their second homes.
Worcester’s Labour MP Mike Foster voted to keep the current system, however, making it clear he believes that as MPs must provide receipts for claims made under the ACA – all of which will be made public from October – that system is actually more transparent than the proposed £30 daily payment would have been The two politicians were also in total disagreement over the issue of MPs’ pay, with Mr Luff voting for a pay rise of 4.7 per cent, but Mr Foster supporting a successful amendment to peg the rise back at a below-inflation 2.25 per cent.
Mr Foster said a below-inflation pay rise for MPs was only fair, because other public sector workers have been forced to accept relatively low pay settlements this year.
But Mr Luff said MPs are currently underpaid, and was livid the Commons had voted to reject the recommendations of two different specially-established independent committees.
“I’m absolutely appalled,” he said. “For a start only half the house was there to vote, which shows the other half are cowards.
“And we got it so badly wrong. We had two sets of independent recommendations and we should have respected them – instead we threw them both out.
“It’s ludicrous. The inevitable result is that the whole thing will be revisited in the next parliament.”
But Mr Foster insisted the rejected reforms would not have been an improvement on the current system.
“I could not support the option that gave me £30 a day extra a day, cash in hand, just for turning up to work,” he said.
“That’s over £4,000 a year. With the system now, each October every single receipt we claim for will be put in the public domain – I think that’s a better system than just giving us the money, no questions asked.”