Martin slates 'tit-for-tat' complaints about MPs' expenses

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 00:06

FORMER Commons Speaker Michael Martin spoke for the first time last night about the expenses row that cost him his job.

Lord Martin of Springburn told the House of Lords of the "awesome power" of the press, and spoke of "vexatious" and "tit- for-tat" complaints being made against some MPs for minor infringements, while others engaged in more serious infringements went unpunished because no complaints had been made.

The peer, who was forced out of office by MPs over his handling of the expenses scandal, was speaking during a Lords debate on a new code of conduct. Lord Martin said he would not go into all the details of the "problems" of the Commons, as that "certainly would keep the House up all night".

He said the problems often arose because MPs approached their expenses "differently". He said: "Some members felt that their different approach was such that, if they had been looked into or investigated by a previous commissioner, they might have been treated 'fairly' or differently."

Lord Martin, whose resignation sparked last month's Glasgow North East by-election, also criticised the rise in MPs' "self-referral" to the Standards Commissioner, often as a result of media pressure.

>BULLETS<Meanwhile, his successor as Speaker said the expenses scandal had done more damage to parliament than anything since German bombing during the Second World War.

John Bercow said: "I cannot think of a single year when more damage has been done to (parliament] than this year, with the possible exception of when Nazi bombs fell on the chamber in 1941.

"The difference is that the physical wreckage then was done by dictators, whereas responsibility for the reputational carnage this year lies with the House."