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Two more MPs to step down in UK expenses row
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-28 22:04 LONDON -- Two MPs, Conservative Julie Kirkbride and Labour's Margaret Moran said on Thursday they would step down at the next election after details about their expenses were published.
Moran decided to quit as Luton South MP after the Daily Telegraph published details of her allowances.
Moran said she had not broken the rules but had been given wrong information from the House of Commons Fees Office which oversees expenses. "The understandable public anger over the issue of MPs' expenses has caused me great stress and has seriously worsened my existing health problem," she said in a statement. "However, it is very important that I set out clearly that I make absolutely clear that I have done nothing wrong or dishonest in relation to my claim for expenses and have at all times acted on advice from the House of Commons Fees Office." Pressure had been building on Kirkbride, 48, after the Telegraph disclosed she had used public money to build an extension to her constituency flat so that her brother could live there and help look after her son. Kirkbride was already facing questions after the paper said that she and her husband, senior Conservative MP Andrew MacKay, had claimed "second home" expense allowances on both their residences. MacKay, 59, announced on Saturday he was standing down as an MP after Conservative leader David Cameron called him to discuss his position. He had already quit as Cameron's senior political advisor. "Today I am announcing that I will not seek re-election for my Bromsgrove constituency," Kirkbride wrote in a letter to Cameron, media reports said. "My principal concern has to be for my very loyal local supporters in Bromsgrove whose trust in me has been very humbling in the last few weeks." The Telegraph said Kirkbride had been allowed to increase her mortgage by 50,000 pounds and then raised her allowance claim to cover the higher interest costs incurred. She had also been criticised for employing her sister as a secretary even though she lived miles from her Worcestershire constituency, in Dorset. Earlier on Thursday, Kirkbride had vowed so stay on, saying the extension had been built so that her brother and son did not have to share a room. But she said she had to take into account "the effects on my family". "I understand people are angry about the way MPs' expenses operate ... and I can understand why questions are being raised," she had earlier told BBC radio. "Every busy working mother knows how difficult it is to get childcare that completely fits around what they need to do. For me it was simply ideal that my brother was prepared to fill this gap." Meanwhile, another Conservative MP was facing embarrassment after the Telegraph reported that he had paid no capital gains tax after making 600,000 pounds on the sale of a house he had told parliamentary authorities was his second home. John Butterfill said a 56,000 pound flat in his Bournemouth West constituency was his main residence but the paper said when he sold his 1.2 million pound mansion he told the taxman that that property was his main home. Butterfill said he would look again at his mortgage allowances and would repay 20,000 pounds for claims he made on an annexe housing his staff. As more revelations about expenses appear and the parties jostle to produce solutions and reforms to the political system, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said MPs should put off their summer break until the row was resolved. |
