Jack Straw put pressure on the independent sleaze watchdog to drop plans for an inquiry into the abuse of MPs’ expenses a year ago, The Times has learnt.
The Committe on Standards in Public Life had proposed conducting a wideranging inquiry into MPs’ staffing, housing and travel expenses last spring but the plans were dropped after pressure from Mr Straw, then Leader of the House, amid suggestions that he was concerned about a back-bench revolt.
The revelation is embarrassing because it shows that a senior government figure trying to hide the issue from the public. None of the party leaders endorses an independent inquiry.
Last night Tony Wright, the influential chairman of the Public Administration Committee, said that a full independent inquiry must go ahead in the light of the Conway scandal. He criticised the inquiry already set up by the Speaker, saying that it undermined public trust. MPs have ridiculed the inquiry for being conducted by a cosy cabal of Establishment figures. The decision will be made by the new chairman of the standards committee, Sir Christopher Kelly, in a fortnight.
Sir Alistair Graham, Sir Christopher’s predecessor, who stepped down in April, told The Times: “I was led to understand that Jack Straw made strong representations that the review by the Committee on Standards should not go ahead.”
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A source close to Mr Straw, now the Justice Secretary, said that he had no official responsibility for the committee but suggested that he believed that the matter was being handled by another body. “Jack would have no locus over what the standards committee chose to look at. In that period the Senior Salaries Review Body examination of pay and allowances was ongoing.”
Gordon Brown, who was then Chancellor, privately indicated his backing for an independent inquiry by the committee last year before Sir Alistair stood down, and Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, is also thought to have been keen. Within a month of Sir Alistair’s departure, however, Mr Straw, as Leader of the House, had conveyed concerns about the inquiry and the committee, which was without a permanent chairman, bowed to pressure. This has raised suspicions that Mr Straw did not want to upset the Labour benches with an inquiry.
Sir Christopher said: “This is certainly an area which needs review. Before deciding on whether this is a task for my committee, I would want to see what action Parliament itself proposes to take.”
The narrow remit of the inquiry ordered by the Speaker, in which he asks for the team to “build its options for reform on the existing regime”, is thought to have raised the chance of an independent inquiry. A source said that the committee would judge “whether Parliament has properly picked up the baton”.
Dr Wright said that the Speaker’s decision to hold an internal inquiry undermined public trust. He urged Sir Christopher to resist any fresh pressure from parliamentarians or government not to hold an expenses inquiry, and resign if his hand were forced. Neither David Cameron nor Nick Clegg would back an independent inquiry yesterday and Mr Brown has already expressed his support for the inquiry by the Speaker.
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In a letter to Sir Christopher released yesterday, Dr Wright urged him to resist any pressure not to get involved. “In my view you would be fully entitled to say that you were unable to continue in your role if you were in any way prevented from undertaking this inquiry now.”
The Labour backbencher Frank Field said: “The days are long gone when the public would accept us doing it for ourselves. I think having the standards committee doing the inquiry would speed up the report.”
Bob Spink, a Conservative MP, said: “I think that the public have never held Parliament and politicians in greater contempt and we need to make fundamental changes in the way we organise and pay for our work. Only an outside body can deliver this.”
Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat, said: “I think people need to have confidence in the process and the recommendations which arise. This is the only chance to get it right.”