Send MEPs down over expense fraud, says Lib Dem

Send them to prison, thundered Chris Davies, the Liberal Democrat whistle blower who saw a secret Brussels expenses report revealing MEPs pocketing the £120,000 intended to pay staff. As Times Brussels man David Charter reports, the European Parliamentary authorities only let Davies view the document in a secret location under guard. Having returned to the office, he made as many notes as he could, phoned the fraud squad and contacted journalists. Weeks after the Conway affair, what lessons for the UK?

1. Parliamentary institutions instinctively protect their own. Davies could only see the document because he was a member of the budget committee, signed a confidentiality agreement and did not take notes. Nor did the damning document contain any names: that would have been too sensitive, eurocrats must have calculated.

2. This reinforces the importance of the external audit to double check Parliament's expenses system. The absues were uncovered from a random sample of expenses examined between 2004 and 2006. Has such an exercise ever been conducted in UK Parliament? Many will say it should in future.

3. The MEP expense scandal may ultimately work in favour of our own politicians, allowing them to point to Brussels and claim the scale of fraud is much worse elsewhere. Le train de jus est magnifique pour toutes!

PS The response of the European Parliament? "'The document is not secret, it is confidential" says a spokesman

Comments

[Andrew Hall]

It is a pretty thin arguement to say 'look at Brussles, the corrution is worse there'. I don't suppose this will get much parliamentary attention as it will draw focus back to the scandal of MP's expenses in this country.

[c adams]

It explains why our failed politicians .....the Kinnock tribe,Mendelson etc catch the first train to Brussels when knocked off the gravy train UK.

[Ken Coates]

when is there going to be a honest MP,s