The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon has found Labour MP & Justice Minister Bridget Prentice guilty of misusing Parliamentary funds, when she delivered parliamentary newsletters to areas of Lewisham that aren't currently in her constituency but will be after the next election.
I wrote about this back in mid October HERE. I wrote...
She is currently under investigation by the House of Commons authorities for alleged misuse of the Communications Allowance. Prentice's tax-payer funded Annual Report was being delivered to residents of two wards outside her constituency. These two wards will form part of the new Lewisham East constituency at the next election. The leaflet stated that 'after the next election Bridget Prentice will be your MP'. The small matter of an intervening general election is obviously no impediment to Mrs Prentice.Well the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner has now put a stop to it and ordered Mrs Prentice to repay any money she has claimed. Good.
Prentice has now written to one of the constituents that she does currently represent, urging her to write to a neighbouring MP with her problem! The resident lives in Lewisham Central ward, which is currently in Prentice's Lewisham East seat (maj 8,758). After the next election, it will move into Lewisham Deptford, currently represented by veteran leftie Joan Ruddock (maj 13,0120). Notice a pattern here?The bottom line is that the Lewisham MPs are contriving to use the boundary changes to manipulate public money and seek influence with their 'potential' electors. And its not just Lewisham's ladies. Jim Dowd, the Labour MP for Lewisham West (maj 7,7779), has also reportedly been caught distributing his paid-for-by-the-public annual report to residents in Penge - which isn't in Lewisham West (yet), but will be after the next election...
It surely goes against everything that Parliament stands for to essentially tell your constituents you won't deal with their cases. I rang the Speaker's Office who professed great surprise that this was happening. I was told "They shouldn't be doing this." I rang six other MPs I know in three different parties and they all expressed astonishment.
Two of the three seats could be classed as semi-marginal, so it's clear what is going on here. They are using parliamentary correspondence and constituency casework to become known in their new areas and they have formed a cosy little cartel to organise it. If it is happening in Lewisham, maybe it is happening elsewhere - all in the name of promoting incumbency.
And it stinks.
9 comments:
Will the Commissioner instruct Mrs Prentice to make this ruling clear to those she has previously written to?
Would it be too much to expect the Commissioner to make his findings on the allegations against Caroline Spelman? That matter has been on his desk for many months and it is manifestly unfair to her and to David Cameron to leave her dangling in a limbo.
I make no comment on her culpability or innocence.
Iain, Well done. But wouldn't it be better in these circumstances if the Commissioner was to make his findings public knowledge in the constituency of the MP concerned?
That would ensure that those that matter, their electorate, are aware!
On Victor, NW Kent's point reading, on Conservative Home yesterday, that David Cameron used a couple of million pounds, for undisclosed reasons, which was not budgeted for. He may prefer to keep the present Chairman.
What I cannot forgive, though is now that the Conservative Party is asking for more donations, it can be said of the party what David Cameron and George Osborne are saying about the Labour Government. Namely they did not look after the finances in the good times to cater for bad times..
Surely the checks and balances within the top echelons of the party are better than this? Why would people want to donate if there is no check on expenditure?
I'd like to know how the original enquiry from Prentice's office to the House authorities (the one that led to an incorrect "all clear" being given)was worded.
Most MPs are very aware of the rules that govern these things - and it seems odd that the House authorities would have made the mistake of allowing distribution if they had a clear picture of what Prentice wanted to do.
Strapworld takes my point further. It is very apparent that, with very few exceptions, our MPs will grab any money that comes along. The only divide is between those who take it for themselves and those who use it for political purposes.
The legislation and rules are all pathetically badly written [by politicians for politicians] so these rows will go on forever.
Particularly ludicrous is the requirement in some case for the money to be registered with the Electoral Commission and then again in the House Register of Interests as though it were two sums.
Even donations through third parties are accepted and are not prosecuted at source or at destination.
All of these factors see an army of politicians at all levels spending as much time on grabbing cash as they do on the work they were elected to do.
Recently Iain listed the qualities he felt that a PM should have but he omitted integrity - an omission seized upon by many respondents.
I doubt if many of our MPs and MEPs can say with sincerity that they are clean. They once complained in Westminster that the Thames stank - the Big Stink is now in Westminster.
I have to confess that I am surprised by this: not that the Standards Commissioner found her guilty, but that the Labour Party were even smart enough to come up with this idea in the first place. Usually we aren't particularly good at this kind of thing.
(by which I mean planning local campaigns years in advance. Usually the Labour grassroots wake up on Election Day and decide to deliver a few leaflets. I realize this is the Richard Nixon defence, but: they may have broken rules, but damn were they smart about it.)
I live in Birmingham, Selly Oak Constituency. The constituency has had boundary changes and we've certainly had post from Stephen McCabe currently Labour MP for Birmingham, Hall Green - who is Labour candidate for Selly Oak at the next election (Lynne Jones is standing down).
Dog bites man. Labour politician. Current government. QED.
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