Speaker defends MP expenses audit

The House of Commons Speaker, John Bercow, has defended retrospective limits on MPs' expenses claims.

Many MPs are furious they are being asked to pay back money for claims they were entitled to make under old rules.

But Mr Bercow said the public had to be satisfied that MPs had "got the message" on expenses.

Meanwhile, the body which is examining proposed future reforms to the expenses system has revealed it will publish its report on 4 November.

Gordon Brown asked the Committee on Standards in Public Life, chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly, to look at all aspects of MPs' pay and allowances.

Over the summer, it took evidence from senior MPs from all parties as well as constitutional experts and democratic campaigners.

MPs have urged the government to accept the Kelly recommendations in full although ministers have yet to signal they will do this.

Latest casualty

On Wednesday David Wilshire became the latest MP to announce he would stand down in the row over expenses.

The Daily Telegraph reported that the Conservative MP for Spelthorne had paid his own company more than £100,000 from public funds.

Mr Wilshire had stressed he and his partner set up the company to run his parliamentary office and it had never made a profit.

But that did not save him, with Tory sources saying David Cameron believed Mr Wilshire had done the right thing in announcing he would leave the House of Commons at the next election.

Mr Bercow told the BBC that he believed in the retrospective changes to the expenses rules, saying there must be "consequences for past claims if they are shown to be wrong or extravagant".

He defended auditor Sir Thomas Legg's decision to impose limits on household claims such as gardening and cleaning.

David Wilshire said he was standing down for the good of his party

In an interview to be broadcast on Saturday on Radio Four's Week in Westminster, Mr Bercow said that if it were a choice between a headline saying "Pay back time" or "Westminster white wash", he would choose the first.

Conservative MP Christopher Chope called for Mr Bercow to make a Commons statement about the issue, arguing that because ministers could be held to account for their statements, the Speaker should too.

In a point of order, he said: "We are insistent that we should hold ministers of the crown to account for their statements and I think Mr Speaker himself would wish to have questions put to him and answer them on something as sensitive as the Legg report."

Deputy Speaker Sir Michael Lord said this was not a matter he could deal with today (Friday) but all parties would have heard the MP's comments and take them into consideration.

'Great distress'

Mr Wilshire is one of more than 100 current MPs who have said they will not seek re-election.

The Telegraph reported that he had paid up to £3,250 a month in parliamentary office allowances to his company, Moorlands Research Services, between 2005 and 2008.

Mr Wilshire said on Thursday he was confident he would be exonerated by the Parliamentary authorities.

But he added: "I am very conscious that the allegations and investigation will cause great distress to my family and friends.

"These allegations also run the risk of harming my local party and our national party's chances of winning at the next general election... I have reluctantly concluded that it is sensible for me not to seek re-election next year."

He said the firm had closed down last year, but before that it had been included in his entry for the Register of Members' Interests.

He denied any wrongdoing, insisting the arrangement was formally approved by the Commons Fees Office.

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