By David Williams
Gesture politics from the major parties is preventing MPs from restoring public trust over their expenses, a former standards watchdog chair has said.
Sir Alistair Graham, who led the Committee on Standards in Public Life until 2007, criticised Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron for jostling for the moral high ground instead of working together on a short-term package to deal with the scandal.
The committee, now chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly, is due to report on the vexed question of MPs’ expenses and allowances in July.
Graham told Public Finance: ‘It’s just a pity that, on what is essentially a cross-party issue, the party leaders can’t devise a common agenda. Given that this is a real nadir in political life in this country, it might have been a new opportunity to create a different kind of politics.
‘We’re into slightly partisan gesture politics, to try to get on to the high moral ground or just as pure political damage limitation.’
However, Graham said that Kelly’s forthcoming review would not be undermined by the apparently ad-hoc announcements from the government and opposition.
‘The lack of a cross-party approach is potentially damaging,’ he said. ‘But he’s a highly skilled ex-permanent secretary and I’m sure he’ll work his way through this.
‘There’s still an enormous amount for him to do, no matter what sort of short-term arrangements each political party comes up with.’
He also told PF that any inquiry into the leak that caused the revelations, as proposed by speaker Michael Martin, would be a ‘futile waste of time and resources’.
Graham had previously suggested a package of reforms that could be brought in while the Kelly inquiry was ongoing. He recommended that second homes allowance payments be suspended until the committee reports, and that Kelly’s findings are adopted in full.
He also said MPs’ allowances should no longer be tax-exempt, and that a new oath of office should be devised.
