The recent furore over MP's expenses has been public and dragged down all MP's, including the vast majority who have nothing to hide and have never, in any way, been accused of misuse of public funds. Why then, is it the case that 148 Labour MPs, 21 Conservative MPs and UKIP’s only MP united on Thursday 3rd July to vote down the proposal for an independent audit of all MPs’ expenses claims? Not a single Lib Dem voted this way.

Indeed, Nick Clegg revealed today that the Liberal Democrats will be publishing detailed breakdowns of cabinet member's expenses, as well as following the guidelines set out by the Members Estimates Committee for individual spot-checks of MP's expenses [Source].

On the other side of the matter, Northampton South MP Brian Binley (Con) voted happily for the bill, in favour of much less transparency in the system. The bill (which he voted for) rejected the reccommendation that all purchases for which expenses were claimed should be with receipts, as well as a lot of the other reccomendations from the Members Estimate Committee.

We need local MP's who will stand up for transparency in the system, attempting to put the trust back in politicians, which has gone after years of Labour spin and blatant lies about everything from War to Transport to Health. The Liberal Democrats have shown, by our actions, that we fully support transparency in the system, and will continue to fight for this in elections to come.

“This decision by MPs is foolish and wrong. It is a disaster for anyone who believes in cleaning up our politics and improving Parliament’s reputation. The House of Commons had the chance to vote for proper auditing of everything MPs do with public money, but an unholy coalition of Labour and Conservative MPs prevented it.
Whilst it is heartening that the Labour MP for Northampton North, Sally Keeble, voted with 50 of her colleagues and the Liberal Democrats to support the proposal, it is deeply disappointed that Brian Binley voted against allowing all MPs’ allowances to be externally audited. 54 of his Conservative colleagues joined the Liberal Democrats and some Labour MPs in voting for independent auditing. Brian Binley must tell us – why did he voted to water down the proposals?
Rarely a week seems to pass without a story in the press about MPs apparently fiddling their finances. The vast majority of MPs are not corrupt. But so long as they resist having their expenses and allowances subject to robust, external audit, the public can be forgiven for wondering what they have got to hide.”
- Andrew Simpson, Lib Dem