The new adventures of Fudge Gordon...

Downing Street has been forced to deny accusations that Gordon Brown 'ducked' a vote on the reform of MPs expenses. According to his Tory enemies, Brown went 'AWOL' on the determinant vote, which, if passed, would have scrapped the controversial second home allowance. Instead, all that's really changed is that MPs have rejected calls for expense spot checks to be carried out by an external body.

The Conservative frontbench apparently voted for an abolition of the allowance, though 33 ministers voted to keep it. Mr Brown was in meetings at the time, and therefore unable to vote. A spokesperson for Downing Street made it clear that Brown had previously expressed his desires for more transparency on the issue, but was simply unable to make it.

The same spokesperson added that Brown did not duck the vote and that there were no plans for his Parliamentary aides, Ian Austin and Angela Smith, who had voted to keep their second homes, to be fired. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham and Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward were also among the 33 ministers who voted to keep their expenses as is. If you see any of them in the streets then do your best to spit on them or throw something or whatever.

"MPs are the only people in the country who sign off their own expenses", is how Lib Dem MP Nick Harvey summed things up. Clearly, everybody knows there's a problem, but nobody has the power to do anything about it. It might've been nice if the Prime Minister at least tried to look like he was doing something, though...

Photo: Flickr

Written by Oli Anderson on 4 Jul 2008 1:16 PM. Permalink