Downing Street Says » MPs’ expenses

Asked if the Prime Minister was planning to respond to Sir Thomas Legg’s report tomorrow, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had always made it clear that there was a discredited old system and what Sir Thomas Legg was doing was putting that to bed. He had been completely supportive of the Legg process. We now had a new system that was emerging, the establishment of IPSA and the work that Sir Christopher Kelly had announced that Sir Ian Kennedy is taking on. The Prime Minister’s view was that this was an important next and final stage in the Legg process.

Asked if the Prime Minister’s instruction to Labour MPs was to pay up, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had been very clear from day one that he would encourage MPs to do what he had done, which is to pay what is required. There was a process for appeals built in to the Legg Review but the most important thing was to get this done as quickly as possible.

Asked repeatedly if the Prime Minister had any regrets about the way in which Sir Thomas Legg had compiled his reports, the PMS replied that the Prime Minister had always seen this as the end of an old discredited system; Sir Thomas Legg had done what had been asked of him. It had been a complicated process with a number of different stages, with the opportunity for MPs to respond within the timetable and we were now looking forward to moving on. The PMS said that the Prime Minister was consistently of the view that it was the right thing to set up this process and to turn our back on a system that was obviously failing. He was focused on the future and to make sure we had a new system in place.

Asked what the Prime Minster thought about Sir Ian Kennedy re-writing Sir Christopher Kelly’s rules, the PMS replied that the new system was being put in place and the Prime Minister said at the outset that he hoped it would be implemented as a package in full, Sir Christopher Kelly has made that clear in the comments he had made, and it was for IPSA to consider the recommendations and bring in a new system that had full public confidence. Asked if Ian Kennedy should be allowed to make changes, the PMS said that this was out of the Prime Minister’s hands, it was part of an independent process, but as he said when Sir Christopher Kelly was reporting that he expected and hoped it would be implemented in full.

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» Wednesday, February 3, 2010

MPs’ expenses

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