Speaker candidates caught up in scandal

Damaged chances: Bercow and Young
12 April 2012

Leading candidates for the Speaker of the Commons were today hit by a raft of allegations over their own expenses and second home claims.

Sir George Young, Sir Alan Beith and John Bercow faced questions over their use of public money. Tory Sir George, who employs his daughter Camilla as his office manager, claimed the maximum second home allowance on a London flat.

Liberal Democrat Sir Alan claimed £117,000 in second home allowance while his wife, Baroness Maddock, claimed £60,000 for staying at the same address. The couple said that they had tried to halve their expenses but Sir Alan's claim amounted to far more than 50 per cent of the allowance.

Mr Bercow faced questions over why he "flipped" the designation of his second home, but he insisted that the change was because his disabled son had started full-time school in London.

Other contenders for Speaker, Sir Menzies Campbell and Sir Alan Haselhurst, have already been hit by the expenses revelations. Sir Menzies agreed to repay £1,490 in interior designer's fees claimed on his Dolphin Square flat, while Sir Alan claimed nearly £12,000 for gardening bills at his Essex farmhouse.

The only leading contender for Speaker who appears to have emerged unscathed from the affair appeared to be Frank Field, the former Labour minister. He is one of the 200 lowest-claiming MPs.

Even though his seat is 220 miles from Westminster, he claimed less than half the amount claimed by some MPs with constituencies in outer London.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in