Cameron's invitation seeking untainted outsiders

DAVID Cameron said yesterday he would open up the Conservative candidate list to independents as he battled to prevent the loss of yet another Tory MP to the expenses scandal.

The Tory leader's attempt to appease public anger over the furore came as Julie Kirkbride, one of his backbenchers, came under intense pressure to follow the lead taken by her MP husband, Andrew MacKay, and stand down at the next election.

Mr MacKay, MP for Bracknell, and his wife, Ms Kirkbride, MP for Bromsgrove, used their expenses to pay off £1,000 a month in mortgage interest on their Westminster flat and a further £900 a month to pay off the mortgage on their family home. It has also emerged that Ms Kirkbride's brother stays regularly at her taxpayer-funded home.

However, despite Mr MacKay's decision to stand down, there was no sign last night that Ms Kirkbride will follow.

Mr Cameron increased the pressure on her by saying she still had "questions to answer" but he made it clear he believed her position was very different from that of her husband.

"To be fair to Julie, she does genuinely live in London, that's where her son goes to school, and she does have a genuine constituency home in Worcestershire," Mr Cameron said.

He acknowledged there were now new issues for her to address, concerning who else lived at her Worcestershire home. "She will have to answer those questions but I do think the two cases are quite different," he added.

Ms Kirkbride insisted her brother had not benefited from the arrangement.

The Conservative leader said he would invite anybody to apply to be a party candidate for the next election, even those with no previous involvement in the party or in politics. As long as they had a commitment to public service and shared the party's aims, they would be considered as candidates, he said.

Almost all the Conservative Party candidates for the next election were selected some time ago after long and rigorous selection processes. Long-standing members and those who had worked hard for the party in the past were often favoured because they had shown their commitment to the party.

But, with a number of MPs standing down because of the expenses scandal, there are now opportunities for new candidates to come forward, some in safe Tory seats.

Mr Cameron said: "What I'm going to do today is I'm going to reopen the Conservative candidate list to anybody who wants to apply. They may not have had anything to do with the party before. But I'm saying, if you believe in public service, if you share our values, if you want to help us clean up politics, come and be a Conservative candidate. We want to open up the talent that is available."

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said it was for each party leader to "sort out" expenses problems within their ranks, but predicted there would be further resignations.

"I suspect there will be a number of other MPs who fall on their swords as well," he said.

He called for a general election, but insisted it must be used as a vehicle for fundamental reform of Westminster.

• Stephen Fry has been voted the celebrity people would like to replace Michael Martin as Speaker in the House of Commons. He beat straight-talking Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, who came second. Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman was in third place to take on the job.

'IRRITATED' BLUNKETT PLAYS DOWN TALK OF ANOTHER COMEBACK

DAVID Blunkett yesterday expressed irritation at claims Gordon Brown could be considering him for a second Cabinet comeback.

The former home secretary was said to have been invited, with his fiancée, to the Prime Minister's country retreat, Chequers, earlier this month.

The report, in a Sunday newspaper, prompted suggestions that Mr Blunkett, who has twice resigned from the Cabinet, could yet return to the government.

A Cabinet reshuffle is expected in the aftermath of the European and council elections on 4 June, in which Labour is braced for a hammering.

But a spokesman for Mr Blunkett, who resigned as home secretary in 2004 and as work and pensions secretary in 2005, said he was not seeking another return.

He dismissed "speculation" that he could take over as Communities Secretary as an attempt to destabilise Hazel Blears, who has been criticised by the Prime Minister for failing to pay capital gains tax after the sale of her second home. A spokesman for Mr Blunkett said: "He is particularly irritated by speculation which he believes is designed to cause controversy about the future of Hazel Blears, the Communities and Local Government Secretary.

"He has no intention of being bounced by newspaper stories or speculation about future decisions of the Prime Minister, and is therefore keen to avoid such talk in the febrile atmosphere of the moment and talk of reshuffles after the European elections.

"He has made it clear on (numerous] occasions that he wishes to help the Prime Minister and the government with campaigning and policy from the back-benches."