MPs could face charges over future expense abuse

Published on Tuesday 23 June 2009 15:26

MPs who break new rules on expenses and allowances could face police investigation and criminal charges, Gordon Brown warned today.

The Prime Minister said he wanted the new Parliamentary Standards Authority Bill, which the Government is publishing today, on the statute book by the time MPs break for the summer recess next month.

The Bill will create a new independent watchdog to regulate MPs' expenses, backed up by criminal sanctions.

Mr Brown told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: "There are indeed criminal offences in this Bill so that if an MP misleads deliberately or if an MP does something like, without reasonable excuse, fails to register a relevant interest, that is a criminal offence and that would then be investigated by the police."

Under the legislation, the new regulatory body is expected to have the power to fine, suspend or expel errant MPs from the House of Commons.

Mr Brown said the Government was acting now – with the support of the Opposition – to get rid of the old system of self-regulation by MPs because past attempts by the Commons to reform itself had failed.

"The mistake of the past was simply to leave everything to the House of Commons to do it on an all-party agreement basis so that you got to lowest common denominator. That has proven to be wrong. It wasn't acceptable," he said.

He said that, if the new system did not prove to be sufficient, the Government was prepared to bring in further measures.

"We will go further in future if we need to, like, for example, making sure that the rules for expulsion are clear, the rules for suspension for a period of time are clear, and the rules for repaying money are clear," he said.

"We are determined to do everything in our power to clean this up and I am not going to rest until we have this got this legislation through."

Mr Brown said the changes the Government was pushing through marked the biggest reform of Parliament in its history.

"This reform is the biggest you have ever seen in Parliament. You have not seen this in any period of the history of Parliament," he said.

"I am determined that it is cleaned up in such a way that we can say to the people of this country: 'We listened, we heard, we knew something was wrong, we have now dealt with it'."

The Prime Minister dismissed criticisms from some Tories over the election of John Bercow as the new Speaker, saying he believed Mr Bercow was committed to reform.

"Of course selecting a younger Speaker and someone who is not one of the old establishment makes a difference," he said.

"I believe he will prove himself of course over a period of time but I believe from what he has said that he is determined to speed up these changes."