More than a month after the siege of Westminster began, bewildered MPs are emerging to take stock of the wreckage. Although there is a lull in the bombardment, MPs are still surrounded by the public rage over expenses that has already destroyed several careers and will probably end many more at the next election.
At the centre remains the brooding, bruised, brute defiance of Gordon Brown: a Prime Minister who grips Labour tight enough to suppress the Blairite intifada but whose almost visible struggle to communicate symbolises the disconnection — “a dialogue of the deaf”, one Cabinet colleague put it — between politicians and the people.
A policeman at Westminster, one of those whose job it is to keep the public away from the business end of Parliament, inspects a pass before saying: “You’re not an MP, are you? If it was up to me, I’d arrest them all.” In Whitehall, an adviser to a Cabinet minister celebrates how the string of resignations had weakened Downing Street: “At least it means they cannot bully and brief against us any more — they know what will happen if they do.”
Drinking on the terrace of the House of Commons, a Conservative MP jabs his thumb dismissively across the river in the direction of where voters live. “They don’t understand what this is about,” he says. “It was fear of headlines about ‘snouts in the trough’ which prevented us having a rational debate on MPs’ pay in the first place.”
Dave Watts, the Labour MP for St Helens North, describes a telephone conversation with a constituent. “He kept having a go at me for having bought a TV, asking stuff like, ‘Why do you need one, couldn’t it be black and white?’ I told him I needed it to watch the news. I find it all a bit strange.”
Advertisement
Although David Cameron may have gained politically from the expenses row, some Tory MPs sulk (their spouses are incandescent), saying their leader “hung us out to dry” by forcing them to repay thousands of pounds while he claimed almost the maximum allowed on a second home.
One sarcastically does a circling motion around his head, indicating a halo at the sight of a colleague whose reputation for populist parsimony has been strengthened by the scandal.
Others grope for explanations. “The sheer banality of what we claimed — bath plugs, chocolate bars — makes politicians and politics itself seem trivial,” one says. He compares life in the Commons to “being in a gay bar pre-Wolfenden [the report that paved the way for legalising homosexuality] — there is a sense of persecution mixed with self-loathing” — and is afraid that the scandal will create a Parliament cowed by the press, filled with inexperienced MPs swept into office on a tide of anti-incumbency and unable to challenge either government or public opinion.
Hilary Armstrong, a veteran Labour MP and former Cabinet minister, says that many good people will think twice about pursuing or continuing a political career in the current climate. “We will end up with a pygmy Parliament if we’re not careful.”
MPs on all sides are braced for further waves of fury next week when official publication of expenses claims could yield new scandals, ranging from the nepotistic employment of family members to fiddled travel allowances. There is gallows humour in a meeting of Labour whips. Helen Goodman describes the dream she had the previous night: “We had all pooled our additional costs allowance and were living together away from this at a villa in Italy.”
Advertisement
Others hope, probably in vain, to spread the blame. A particular focus for resentment is The Daily Telegraph, which, since obtaining details of MPs’ claims, has been the sole filter by which to judge their ethics and has sometimes made little distinction between minor misdemeanours and outright fraud.
Still more complain about the advice they received from the Commons Fees Office, which may have made the mistake of assuming that Honourable Members were, well, honourable. Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton South who is quitting politics after spending £22,500 of taxpayers’ money on treating the dry rot at her husband’s seaside home, received a letter from Andrew Walker, the Director-General of Commons resources, confirming that she had twice been advised that her claims were in order. He added that a colleague had already “apologised for the department’s mistake”.
Nick Brown, the Chief Whip, says: “The invigilation of these claims has been very poor and the fees office has some explaining to do.”
Another minister recalls that when first elected in 1997, he had submitted expenses with receipts attached, saying: “The fees office came back and said they would rather I did not because no one else did. They then took what seemed to be retaliatory action by paying me late.”
He complained to Mr Walker about scams such as MPs sharing cars but claiming separate mileage, or distributing travel warrants as presents. “When I warned him there would be a terrible storm one day, Walker looked at me with pain in his eyes and replied, ‘But we work for you’.” Mr Walker has not responded to interview requests.
Advertisement
This tendency among both MPs and officials to keep heads down was also apparent in efforts to remove Mr Brown from Downing Street. Tremulous rebels invited colleagues to sign up for a leadership challenge on a secret e-mail account and briefed the press under time-honoured “lobby terms” that protects their identity.
Parliament and the Prime Minister now promise that they will adapt to the modern age by becoming more “open and transparent”. But many suspect that both are too stuck in their ways to do so.
Tony Blair was recently heard to remark that Freedom of Information was his “greatest mistake” — including Iraq — because limited disclosure merely whetted the appetite of the public for more. Downing Street hopes that Mr Brown may enjoy a mini-revival among voters for whom an unlikely comeback is always compelling. Others suggest that an effort, for instance, to attack Conservatives over planned spending cuts will fail unless the Prime Minister earns “the right to be heard” by acknowledging that a Labour Government would also have to take action on public debt.
Conservatives, even as they stand on the cusp of power, also face a dilemma. Having draped themselves in environmental concern and social liberalism, they know that such apparel may not be ideally suited to the rougher terrain ahead. There is concern within Mr Cameron’s inner circle that Tories may be tempted to ditch the centre and move into the radical tax-cutting territory opening up to the right. Others say they should seize this opportunity before rival parties do.
Outside Parliament this week an American tourist — still glowing in President Obama’s talk of hope and “better angels” — gazes up at Big Ben. So, what does she think? “It’s great. Really great,” says Amy Johnstone, 23. A motorist slows to shout abuse at those walking past. “Maybe it’s a bit of an angry place just now,” she adds.