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Tom Richmond: New Speaker should sling out offending MPs
Tomorrow night, Britain will be finally rid of Michael Martin – the first Speaker of the House of Commons to be deposed in more than 300 years. His departure cannot come a minute too soon, and it can only be hoped that his ineptitude is not rewarded with a peerage.
One retired Yorkshire MP told me this week that he never particularly liked Martin and once admonished the Scot for his poor attendance at committee meetings. Yet will his successor be any better? I doubt it.
This is the test that they must pass and, so far, none of the candidates appears capable of responding appropriately to the democratic task in hand.
A month ago, it emerged that Elliot Morley, the now shamed Scunthorpe MP, had claimed 16,800 in Commons allowances for a mortgage that had already been paid off.
Lamely, he blamed "sloppy accounting" on his part. After returning the money, he was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party and announced that he would not contest his seat at the next election.
On Thursday night, as Parliament published a heavily censored and selective record of MPs' expenses, it emerged that Morley had repaid a further 20,000 because further examination of his home-loan arrangements by his lawyers had found that part of the capital was paid from public funds banned under Commons rules. Repeatedly, Morley has promised a full explanation over his mortgage arrangements to prove his innocence, and why he could have overlooked being 36,800 better off without realising this to be so. It is still awaited.
Yet, given that he wrongly claimed so much money, along with others, why is Morley still sitting in the Commons? He is bereft of credibility. He has no influence. He has even lost his select committee chairmanship.
People like Morley should be slung out of the Commons when wrongdoing on their part emerges. Ian Gibson, the Norwich MP, believes this to be the case. After his housing arrangements were exposed, he took the only honourable course of action open to such a member and resigned his seat, thereby prompting a by-election.
Morley's tactic appears to be playing for time, presumably so not to jeopardise his Commons pension. He hopes people will forget his misdemeanour.
They will not, especially given how some of the most incriminating details were "blacked out" when Parliament finally disclosed aspects of MPs' expenses this week.
His constituents deserve better. And, if Morley and his like will not step down, the new Speaker should order them to do so and demonstrate that they are serious about reforming the House of Commons.
Their words, thus far, do not inspire confidence. I hope that I'm proved wrong.
I HAD a very simple question this week for Shahid Malik, the Dewsbury MP and newly-appointed Communities Minister whose expenses are now subject to a second high-level investigation.
Why, I wanted to know, did he submit a 33 invoice for two Poppy Day wreaths in November 2007 when a claim for exactly the same amount was rejected the previous year?
Other MPs, including Schools Secretary Ed Balls, have erred once. Malik, however, appears, at face value, to have done so twice. What does this say about his regard for Britain's war dead?
To his credit, Malik called back within minutes of my questions being posed to his aide on Monday morning. He said he supported the Armed Forces and would provide a full response by return of email. I'm still waiting. So, too, is the Royal British Legion.
DAVID Blunkett's likable aide, Rob Newman, has a vested interest in John Bercow becoming the next Speaker of the House of Commons.
At present, Newman is slated in to be Labour's candidate against Bercow at the next election. He could not face a tougher political baptism; the Buckingham constituency is natural Tory territory. However, political convention dictates that the Speaker is unopposed at General Elections, and the elevation of the pint-sized Bercow would mean Newman looking for a new seat to contest.
He could be very lucky – the exodus of Labour MPs from Parliament means some winnable seats are up for grabs.
DENIS Healey, the grand old man of British (and Yorkshire) politics, was on fine form when he made a belated appearance on Radio Four's Desert Island Discs.
As forthright as ever, the former Chancellor shed new light on his decision to go to the International Monetary Fund for assistance in 1976.
He added: "You join the IMF as an insurance policy. Drawing on insurance when you need it – there's nothing wrong with that."
Many still regard this as a national humiliation. Not so, said Lord Healey of Riddlesden. "Absolute baloney."
He was equally belligerent over the current recession and Labour's electoral chances.
"There are many problems the Labour Party has at the moment about winning the next election, but I don't think what's happening to the economy is one of them," he said.
Sorry, Denis, I disagree. If it wasn't for his economic mismanagement, Gordon Brown would not be facing daily questions about his leadership capabilities.
IF I were George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, I'd be worried after reading the backhand compliment that was made by Lord Mandelson, the most powerful – and ruthless – politician in the country.
The pair fell out spectacularly last autumn when Osborne sought to expose the Labour man's links with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, and various meetings on a yacht, without mention that he sought a donation for Tory coffers from the oligarch.
"He says he's learnt from his mistake," says the Business Secretary. "I believe he has. He's a bright enough young man."
Watch your back, George.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Friday 25 May 2012
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