Commons speaker launches bid to keep MPs’ home rentals under wraps

Commons Speaker John Bercow has tried to block publication of details of MPs’ expenses that could show if they are renting their taxpayer-funded homes to each other.

• John Bercow wants Ipsa to restrict the letter over security concerns

• Concerns raised over potential property loophole

• CAmpaigners warn of “stain on the reputation of parliament”

He warned the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) that revealing the identities of politicians’ landlords would be a “security risk”.

Ipsa had been due to disclose the material yesterday in response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request. However, the process has been put on hold in the wake of the Speaker’s intervention.

Concerns have been raised over a “loophole” in the rules that allows MPs to profit by renting properties to colleagues, who then claim the costs on expenses. It is understood four members are currently renting from other MPs – although there are no cases of home “swaps”.

In his letter to Ipsa, Mr Bercow said there was a “very real danger” MPs’ residential addresses could be discovered as a result of the planned publication. He wrote: “I would have thought it plain that the balancing exercise between FoI and data protection rights comes down in favour of not disclosing.”

A spokesman for Mr Bercow said: “The Speaker’s letter to Sir Ian Kennedy, chair of Ipsa, relates solely to the security implications of publishing MP rental details based on professional advice and resolutions of the House.”

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “If MPs are again found to have exploited the expenses system, it will be another stain on the reputation of parliament.

“It was the cry that ‘it’s all within the rules’, combined with attempts to suppress the publication of claims, that made the MPs’ expenses crisis three years ago so toxic. Whilst the rules may not technically prevent MPs from renting properties to one another, it is certainly against the spirit of those rules.”

Ipsa said: “We are committed to transparency as is shown by our regular publication of all claims by all MPs. We have a duty to balance that against the risk of compromising security. We are currently going through the process of gathering all the relevant information to get that judgment right.”