Maria Miller expenses row: Lord Tebbit calls for Culture Secretary to quit

 
Andrew Woodcock7 April 2014
WEST END FINAL

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Former Conservative chairman Lord Tebbit has become the most senior Conservative to call for Maria Miller to resign as Culture Secretary, amid controversy over her response to an investigation into her expenses claims.

Lord Tebbit said that the Culture Secretary's "arrogant" handling of the scandal had revived voter anger over MPs' expenses and undermined the Government's message that "we're all in it together", adding: "The best way out of this is for Mrs Miller to resign."

His call came as Labour promised to reform Parliament's standards system in the wake of controversy over the decision of a panel of MPs to overrule a watchdog's judgment on Mrs Miller.

Pressure on the Culture Secretary has been heightened by a poll suggesting that a large majority of voters think she should be dropped from the Cabinet, stripped of her responsibility for press regulation and thrown out of the House of Commons.

But there have also been calls for an overhaul of the system for dealing with complaints against MPs, which gives responsibility for investigating alleged lapses to independent commissioner Kathryn Hudson, but allows the Commons Standards Committee - made up of 10 MPs and three non-voting lay members - the final say on adjucation and setting a penalty.

The committee last week overruled Ms Hudson's recommendation that Mrs Miller should repay £45,000 of expenses claimed on a house shared with her parents, and instead told her to hand back £5,800 and say sorry for failing to co-operate fully with the 14-month inquiry.

But Mrs Miller was accused by a Labour backbencher of bullying the watchdog, after it was revealed she told Ms Hudson it would be "irrational, perverse and unreasonable" to uphold the complaint against her and warned that she might go over the commissioner's head to ask the Standards Committee to intervene.

The chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, Sir Ian Kennedy, said it was time for MPs to give up the power to judge themselves, just as they gave up powers to police their own expenses following the 2009 scandal.

"MPs marking their own homework always ends in scandal. It happened with expenses. It will happen with standards investigations too," Sir Ian told the Sunday Times. "To avoid further damage to Parliament in the future, it should have the confidence to give away powers in regulating itself and see that independent regulation is the best, most transparent way forward."

Conservative chairman Grant Shapps agreed that the system should be reviewed, but said it did not necessarily need reform.

He told Sky News: "I don't think that just because we didn't get the result that others might have wanted to see means that the system necessarily is wrong. But I do think it's right that the system should be looked at."

But Labour accused Prime Minister David Cameron of "failing to act" and promised reform if it wins next year's general election.

"We need a system which commands public confidence, and what we have at the moment clearly doesn't do that," said shadow leader of the Commons Angela Eagle.

"We need reform so that people have faith that MPs are properly held to account. David Cameron has failed to act but Labour won't let this failing system go unreformed."

Former Tatton MP and anti-sleaze campaigner Martin Bell told BBC1's Sunday Politics programme: "I don't think there should be a Committee on Standards. I think the commissioner should make a report and there has to be justice for the MP complained against, then the committee of the whole House can consider it."

Mr Bell said Mrs Miller's case was yet further proof that the House of Commons is "incapable of regulating itself".

Mr Shapps said the Culture Secretary should be allowed to "get on with her job" after she apologised "unreservedly" to the Commons last Thursday as required by the Standards Committee.

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