More MPs set to stand down at next general election
Digg
del.icio.us
Facebook
Reddit
Google
Stumble Upon
Fark
Newsvine
YahooBuzz
Bebo
Twitter
Independent Minds
More MPs are set to stand down at next year’s general election in order to take advantage of “golden handshakes” of up to £65,000 that will not apply at future elections.
Senior figures in all political parties warned that the new expenses regime announced on Wednesday will provide a “perverse incentive” for MPs to “take the money and run”, as one put it. Whips believe another 50 could decide to quit, on top of the 114 who have already announced that they will leave Parliament.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life, chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly, said the pay-offs of up to a year’s salary should be cut to two months’ wages if MPs retire rather than are made “redundant” by losing their seats at an election. That would reduce the “golden goodbye” of a long-serving MP from £64,766 to £10,794, on current salary levels.
Andrew Dismore, Labour MP for Hendon, said: “People who may want to retire at the following election will leave with virtually nothing. Some people may consider thinking: ‘Well, might as well go now and take what is available’.”
One former minister said: “It’s a crazy idea. Kelly should either have kept the full payments or ended them at the next election. A lot of people are now going to stand down five years earlier than they planned.”
Although the Kelly review has been endorsed by all the party leaders, there is growing criticism by MPs. Labour's Austin Mitchell said it could mean MPs were not paid enough to do the job and may "castrate" Parliament. He said it was "unrealistic and unfair" for party leaders to tell MPs to "accept it and shut up".
"It is in the interests of mandarins and ministers and leaders to have a weak Parliament with members who aren't well-paid enough to do their job," he said.
"In pursuing that, they are actually neutralising Parliament, castrating us in a sense."
Helen Goodman, a Work and Pensions Minister, said: "With Kelly, we seem to have been looking at the expenses first and the consequences for who can and cannot afford to be a parliamentarian fall out of that. That seems to me to be completely the wrong order. I am not convinced that this is good for members with small children and families."
A group of MPs’ wives plan to go to the High Court in an attempt to block the Kelly committee’s plan to ban them from working for their husbands. They have received legal advice that they could succeed in a judicial review on the grounds that a ban would breach the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act.
Alan Duncan, the Tory frontbench spokesman on prisons, was cleared by the Commons standards watchdog yesterday of wrongly claiming tens of thousands of pounds in mortgage interest payments on his second home.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.
Offensive or abusive comments will be removed and your IP logged and may be used to prevent further submission. In submitting a comment to the site, you agree to be bound by the Independent Minds Terms of Service.
- Print Article
- Email Article
-
Click here for copyright permissions
Copyright 2009 Independent News and Media Limited
Comments
Indeed ninsim. I think Al Capone's Chicago of the 1920s was a cleaner place than Westminster, they only got him the end on tax avoidence, they won't even manage that with our tax dodgers !
"Senior figures in all political parties warned that the new expenses regime announced on Wednesday will provide a “perverse incentive” for MPs to “take the money and run”, as one put it." And I thought they were doing it for the public service. How many MP's and their spouses have we heard lately saying "I gave up a better salary to become an MP." As they are all so bloody brilliant they shouldn't have any problems getting new jobs, and they certainly shouldn't need Ł65000 golden goodbyes.One of the MP's, Simon Bell, was on Radio 2 today saying that Parliament could become the domain of only rich people again if these reforms go through! They are all rich, by most peoples standards. They are in the top 10% of earners in the country, and that is disregarding all their expenses and tax fiddles etc. And property development in their names and their family names.
You thought they were doing it for the public service, so did I, once upon a time...
But they havn't run yet. Dinsmore :" people may want to retire at the following election will leave with virtually nothing, ",They will have to live " on rations" then like Alan Duncan. Oh dear, oh dear, how my heart aches for them, as for the griping Austin Mitchell words fail. I am just deeply glad he is not my MP. He is beneath contemp, as are so many others.
My effort was sent before completion, whilst trying to make a small correction :" I was about to continue : Parliament, like no other in history, as a whole; that, thatb would be has disappeared into the realms of fantasy; as corporal Jones was prone to do so often, in the immortal " Dad's Army " but lovable for all that. But is precisely why "they still don't get it " nor ever will, because, in the words of Private Fraser " they're all Mad, Mad, do you hear me MAD !!
What else did Fraser frequently forecast , and will the next intake of MPs be so horribly treated by the ungrateful taxpayer as this hard done by, hard working bunch of selfless public servants , another interesting word...
That's right glimmer, and a few dozen others, on all sides of the House, and in the Lords too. What ever happens, we must all be objective, a bit of sarcasm, provided it is witty is fine by me, but objectivity is the thing.
I am not a party hack by the way, just an innocent bystander. Party hacks of all stripes, I suspect, come on here on occasions and say their piece. I would just like to make it clear, that I have absolutely no political afilliations, and to be honest - there's an interesting word these days - come the next election, I am not exactly stuck for choice. It is time for PR, since no single government on offer could possibly to be trusted to manage our affairs. Sad to say, and I mean sad for million reasons, to British public has been let down by a Parliament
Fighting on the basis of Employment Law or the SDA? BRING IT ON, you slime!
....make effectual provision for the settlement of the religion, laws and
liberties of this kingdom, so that the same for the future might not be
in danger again of being subverted, to which the said Lords Spiritual
and Temporal and Commons did agree, and proceed to act accordingly.
This must still apply to parliament yet we have been subverted by this labour government..
Re: SUBVERT…to overthrow…to destroy… to overturn…to corrupt… to pervert
Isn't selling our country out a way to subvert our liberties?
That means they have broken their oath and broken the law of The Bitish Bill of Rights.
NOW they want a golden handshake.... I can think of a better good bye... it involves the crime of treason to the people of this country.
Liars Cheats and Embezzlers = Traitors
No wonder they are afraid of the BNP for the police will be brought in to investigate these criminals
Utter Tosh, fascists of any srtripe are to be feared...