"This week the Westminster establishment will try to pass a law that would exempt MPs from the Freedom of Information Act and allow MP expenses to remain secret.
I've had enough of this farce. I decided over the weekend that at the end of this financial year (April 2009), I'll be publishing a detailed breakdown of all the things I've claimed for as an MP over the year. Want to see what I spend on travel or rent? I'm going to put it on-line for all to see.
My colleague, Ben Wallace MP, had the courage to show the way, and I now intend to follow his lead.
This nonsense once again underlines that there is something profoundly wrong with the way Westminster is run. Speaker Michael Martin is not up to the job, and his good old boy gatherings Speaker Committee system simply isn't delivering credible or effective leadership. They might hate me for saying so, but they don't live in Clacton.
Mr Martin ought to unilaterally declare that Commons officials will place a breakdown of each MPs expenses on-line at the end of every financial year - and tell MPs who complained that if you spend public money, you must be accountable to the public for how you spend that money.
Incidentally, if some MPs don't have the moral nous to see that, how can they possibly have the moral nous to make judgements over vastly more complex subjects, like Gaza, or education, or today's Policing Bill? "
So that's Douglas Carswell and Ben Wallace who will publish their expenses in full (and I believe Michael Gove as well); any more transparent MPS? It's our money so be accountable to us and publish in full.
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