Margo MacDonald: Sometimes, politics is best kept in the family

Published on Wednesday 28 October 2009 08:14

IT MIGHT appear that the only gossip in the political world just now is about last week's Question Time. Why was Jack Straw such a wimp, and how much has David Dimbleby's reputation been damaged by his lack of professionalism? Can he recover? Is Nick Griffin really as limited as he appeared, or was he just so nervous and overwhelmed by the hostility towards him that he couldn't rise to the occasion?

These questions and many more will continue to provide plenty scope for speculation whenever folk of a political bent gather round a dining table, or share a convivial after-work pint. But in many a home in which an interest in politics is shared by the husband and wife, either one of whom may be MPs, or the other's constituency case worker or parliamentary office secretary, the talk will be less speculative.

It looks as though the man charged with cleansing the Westminster stables, Sir Christopher Kelly, is going to recommend that MPs be forbidden from employing relatives. Can you blame spouses like Eve Burt, married to Alistair Burt MP, for threatening to throw an almighty wobbler (my words, not hers) if Gordon Brown accepts Sir Christopher's recommendation? She has worked as her husband's secretary and office manager for 27 years. Presumably, she's pretty good at the job, otherwise, wouldn't her husband's constituents have voted him out on the grounds his constituency service was rubbish?

Eve Burt, and Suzy Gale, who's worked for husband Roger for 26 years, and other spouses who've more than proved their ability and willingness to work for the going rate, are investigating the best ways to protect their interests in the light of Sir Christopher's report. Acas has been approached and one parliamentary assistant is said to have warned his wife that he will sue if he is told to clear his desk.

In the wake of the scandalous abuse of his position and misuse of public money represented by the wages former MP Derek Conway paid his sons from his office allowance, there was an immediate reaction against MPs, or MSPs come to that, employing their families.

And the publication of expenses brought to light a number of arrangements that raised eyebrows, mainly because the MP and spouse were known to colleagues as a partnership in which the spouse went shopping, or more usually, stayed home in the constituency, brought up the kids and dealt with household emergencies.

But most political partnerships perform the tasks they're paid to, and usually to a reasonable standard. Working together can avoid the marital difficulties caused by living separate lives in quite different communities. Among the examples of married couples working in Holyrood, the common feature in each working partnership is the volume of work done above and beyond duty and a barrowload of work going home in the secretary's bag.

Far from ripping off the public purse, spouses shadow the work rate of their MP partners, thus donating several hours of unpaid work too. It would be unfair, discriminatory and very expensive to ban MPs from employing their spouses of the same stamp as Suzy and Eve. It's quite likely a tribunal would award them oodles of cash in compensation, paid for by the public purse.

It's possible to devise a system that would stop any future Derek Conway who manages to slip through a party's selection processes from using the allowances as a family job creation project.

But, among responsible MPs who didn't abuse the trust placed in them, opposition is building to punishment being applicable to them as well as to MPs who made greedy, unreasonable expenses claims. Gordon Brown is rumoured to be anxious to avoid a backbench revolt, in addition to MPs who've already decided the game's a bogey so they've nothing to lose. The PM has been tinkering with the idea of reducing ministers' salaries, thus producing a rise of approximately 3,000 for MPs to offset the loss of expenses.

MSPs' salaries were set at 87.5 per cent of Westminster salaries by an independent board, and seven years ago I urged the Scottish Parliament to accept the recommendation of the Senior Salaries Review Board. So I've tabled a motion that MSPs should refuse any consequential increases to our salaries arising out of party political considerations, and not the findings of an independent salaries review.