Downing Street Says » The Speaker/MPs’Expenses

Asked whether there was a statement form the Speaker expected this afternoon and did he still expect the meeting between the party leaders and Speaker Martin to take place, the PMS said that the first question was not a matter for the Government. We were expecting the meeting at 4pm to be with Speaker Martin.

Asked if the Speaker was going to resign, the PMS said that that was a matter for the Speaker. Put that expecting the meeting at 4pm to be with Speaker Martin would suggest that the Speaker would not resign, the PMS said that we expected Speaker Martin to be at the meeting at 4pm. Asked if he would attend as Speaker Martin, the PMS replied that questions about the status of the Speaker were best addressed to the office of the Speaker.

Asked why the Prime Minister had chosen to give his regular press conference at 5:30 this afternoon, the PMS said that people had been saying that it would be nice to hear more from the Prime Minister, so this would be an opportunity for him to set out his views on current events.

Asked if there would be Government time to debate the motion put forward yesterday, the PMS said that there was no change in the position. Asked if the subject of the Speaker was discussed at Cabinet, the PMS replied that the status of the Speaker was not an issue for Cabinet or the Government. Asked whether the Prime Minister had spoken to the Speaker yesterday or this morning, the PMS said that the Prime Minister spoke to the Speaker from time to time but those were private discussions and there was nothing he could say on that at this point.

Asked if the Prime Minister still thought Speaker Martin was doing a good job, the PMS said that the Government s position remained unchanged; the Prime Minister himself had spoken about the Speaker yesterday. Asked if the Prime Minister expected the Speaker to step down at the next general election, the PMS said that he was not there to give the Prime Minister s expectations or forecasts. Any statement by the Speaker was a matter for the Speaker.

Asked why the Prime Minister had left the chamber so quickly yesterday, the PMS replied that it was always the Prime Minister s intention to go for the Speaker s statement as a mark of respect to the office of the Speaker. The Prime Minister wouldn t necessarily stay on for any issues that followed the statement and this was what would normally happen for statements the Prime Minister attended.

In response to whether the Prime Minister was aware of the public anger towards the Speaker as opposed to MPs, the PMS said that the Prime Minister thought that the public were angry about all MPs and how the behaviour of MPs had been demonstrated in recent days and he had been making that clear yesterday. What we had also been making clear was that the issues were wide reaching and went into the whole system of how Parliament operated and how it governed itself. Those were the issues that we had been looking at and we would be making proposals to the meeting this afternoon. There had been consultation with the opposition parties on this and we would be able to say more on this at a later point.

Asked if there was a growing consensus between the parties, the PMS said that we did think there was growing consensus, but there was a meeting this afternoon and we would be able to find out more following that meeting. Asked if consultation with opposition parties had happened over the last 24 hours, the PMS replied that there had been consultation over recent days with opposition parties about proposals to make wider changes to the way Parliament operated, but he was not in a position to say more on the subject at this point.

Asked if the Prime Minister thought that MPs who had paid money back to the fees office should step down, the PMS replied that it was the Prime Minister s view that we needed to have a proper process to look through every receipt of every MP to re-examine those receipts and consider in the light of that what further action was necessary.

Asked how the Prime Minister would react to calls from David Cameron that the best way to deal with the expenses issue would be to call a general election, the PMS said that the Prime Minister s view on this was that we had to take action in order to restore trust in politics. That was action both to deal with what had happened in the past, action to put in place interim measures to deal with the current situation and action to reform the system going forward, based on more transparency, greater accountability and reduced cost. In the Prime Minister s view, this was the most effective way of restoring public trust and public confidence.

Asked if ending self-regulation had been discussed with the opposition parties, the PMS said that he was not in a position to say anymore on the matter at this point.

Asked if it was the case that all Cabinet Ministers had submitted their receipts by yesterday evening, the PMS said that that was correct. Asked if those receipts would be put up on MPs websites, the PMS replied that he was not sure what the procedure would be for the publication of receipts, but it was the intention to publish those as soon as was practicable. Asked if that would happen this week, the PMS said that it would be in the next week or so.

Asked if the Prime Minister had had any discussions with the Government whips over expenses claims after the revelations about Nick Brown s expenses, the PMS said that it was the Prime Minister s view that there needed to be a proper process for looking at all of these issues and that related to every MP.

Asked if the Prime Minister had visited the Speaker between Cabinet and the NEC meeting, the PMS replied that he would not comment on any contacts between the Prime Minister and the Speaker; the Prime Minister did have some other meetings in the House of Commons with other people before the NEC meeting.

Asked if the Prime Minister had read the newspapers this morning, the PMS said that the Prime Minister was always kept informed of what was in the newspapers. Asked if the Prime Minister was any closer to calling an early general election, the PMS said that he was not.

Asked if mortgage interest payments were part of the Prime Minister s reform package, the PMS said that that had always been our longstanding position. If there were to be interim changes to the second home allowance, we did not understand why mortgage interest payments would be excluded. Asked if the Prime Minister had an agreement on this with the opposition parties, the PMS said that the discussions with opposition leaders had been more about some of the longer-term reforms that we needed to make. There was a separate process through the Committee on Members Allowances, which was looking at what the interim measures were. This was the main forum for discussing these interim measures.

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» Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Speaker/MPs’Expenses

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