MEP's expenses

There is a lot of fuss being made over the "dodgy" expenses of Conservative MEPs that have been revealed recently, and rightly so as the antics of Giles Chichester and others are reprehensible. However I have read little on the BBC about how this information has come into the open and why we are unlikely to learn of any "naughtiness" that has been undertaken by Labour or Liberal Democrat MEPS.

Open Europe, the European focussed think tank, asked all British MEPs who handled their staff allowances, and whether they employed family members. Only 25 out of 79 UK MEPs were prepared to provide full answers. 12 MEPs replied, but gave only partial answers, while 41 simply refused to answer the questions. Most Conservative MEPs replied, as did almost all UKIP members and both Greens. But 15 out of 19 Labour MEPs and eight out of 11 Lib Dems have kept quiet.

So here is a list of the MEPs who have not answered the questions at all (per Open Europe):

Conservative - 11:
Sir Robert Atkins, Christopher Beazely, John Bowis, Den Dover, James Elles, Malcolm Harbour, Caroline Jackson, Timothy Kirkhope, John Purvis, Struan Stevenson, Robert Sturdy

Labour - 13:
Michael Cashman, Richard Corbett, Neena Gill, Richard Howitt, Stephen Hughes, Glenys Kinnock, Linda MacAvan, Eluned Morgan, Brian Simpson, Peter Skinner, Catherine Stihler, Gary Titley, Glenis Willmot

Liberal Democrat - 8:
Elspeth Attwooll, Andrew Duff, Fiona Hall, Sarah Ludford, Liz Lynne, Bill Newton-Dunn, Emma Nicholson, Diana Wallis

Non attached and Nationalist parties - 6:
Robert Kilroy-Silk, Jill Evans, Bairbre de Brun, Ian Hudghton, Alan Smith, Jim Nicholson

UKIP - 3:
Graham Booth, Roger Knapman, Mike Natrass


Maybe Michael Crick could get off his Caroline Spelman hobby horse and investigate some of these people. The only problem is that he would only look at the Conservative MEPs listed as Tory sleaze is an acceptable BBC story, whilst Labour sleaze is not.