LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Saturday parliament must do more than clean up its expenses system to restore public trust, after his ruling Labour party suspended a second lawmaker in a damaging perks scandal.
On its ninth day of disclosures from leaked expense claims by members of parliament from all parties, the Daily Telegraph said Labour’s David Chaytor claimed 13,000 pounds ($20,000) of taxpayers’ money for a mortgage he had already paid off.
Brown’s political spokesman said Chaytor, who has promised to repay the cash, had been suspended pending an inquiry. Suspension strips Chaytor of his membership of the parliamentary Labour party and converts him into an independent MP.
With two MPs now suspended and a junior minister stepping down while allegations about his finances are investigated, Labour has been hardest hit in a scandal which has scarred parliament’s reputation and could influence coming elections.
“Unacceptable behaviour will be investigated and disciplined. I do not rule out any sanction,” Brown said in an article to be published in Sunday’s News of the World newspaper.
“Trust has been badly damaged and cannot be restored simply by rectifying past mistakes and reform to the expenses system. As well as righting wrongs and cleaning up the system, there is now a clear need to go much further.”
Claims for lawnmower repairs, dog food, porn films and moat cleaning have angered recession-hit Britons already disenchanted with the political classes. The affair has also fuelled growing dissatisfaction with a Labour government in power since 1997.
With local and European polls due on June 4, analysts expect a backlash against the big parties in favour of smaller groups such as the Greens, the anti-European Union UK Independence Party and even the far-right British National Party. The scandal could also spill into the next parliamentary election, which must be called by June 2010. Opinion polls point to a big win for the main opposition Conservatives.
