Parliament was put under the microscope during the scandal
Ten years on from the MPs expenses scandal, the political earthquake that rocked Westminster has had far-reaching and unexpected consequences that continue to shape Britain today.
What prompted the scandal?
In May 2009 an explosive leak to The Daily Telegraph blew open the previously secretive world of MPs’ expenses. A year before, the courts had ruled that the expenses claims of parliamentarians and peers should be made public, but until a CD containing precise details was handed over the House of Commons had only released heavily redacted versions.
The claims, which ranged from the infamous ornamental duck house to criminal misdemeanors, rocked Westminster to its core and led to the resignation of several government ministers and then-speaker Michael Martin, the imprisonment of two peers and five MPs, and the retiremen of dozens more.
In all, 392 former and current MPs were ordered to repay £1.3m in misclaimed expenses.
“The scandal has had consequences that few expected” says The New Statesman. “Trust in politics had already been damaged by the invasion of Iraq and the financial crash of 2008. Here was evidence that the political system was not only corrupt, but seemingly rigged against ordinary people.
“The result has been a deep and enduring distrust of politicians and public institutions.”
What has happened since?
Having topped the news agenda for the best part of the year, the scandal led public faith in Britain’s political system to plummet to record lows.
New measures were introduced to ensure MPs were held more accountable.The controversial Additional Costs Allowance, in which MPs with seats outside inner London were allowed to claim up to £24,000 a year for a second home, was reduced, while taxpayers were no longer expected to foot the bill for MPs’ mortgages.
But the perception that MPs were out to game the system by tilting the rules in their favour persisted.
In 2013, there was fresh outcry after it emerged that almost 150 MPs had claimed expenses associated with their children’s accommodation and travel. Between 2010, when the expenses rules were reformed and 2013, MPs claimed almost £140,000 for their children's travel. They were also eligible to claim up to £2,425 for each child who “routinely resided” with them, and more than 90 MPs are believed to have claimed more than the accommodation cap of £20,000 a year.
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which monitors MPs’ pay and expenses, said the arrangements were within the rules, yet the revelation prompted accusations of hypocrisy and claims that MPs enjoyed benefits not available to ordinary workers.
Only last month, yet another expenses scandal broke, after the Daily Mirror revealed that 160 MPs and peers had raked in more than £42m in profits selling properties that public money had helped fund.
The Canary reports “politicians claimed the taxpayer funding as part of the old expenses system but cashed in on the homes years later”.
The investigation found investigation found MPs made an average profit of £255,000 on selling their taxpayer-subsidised homes. These included potential Tory leadership frontrunner Michel Gove, who made £870,000 on two homes, and chairman of the influential backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady.
“Under parliamentary rules they are entitled to keep the money” said the Mirror, “but with trust in politicians still low after the expenses scandal and the ongoing Brexit shambles, critics insist if MPs want to regain trust they should hand the money to the Treasury”.
So what was the legacy?
As the tenth anniversary of the scandal has approached, commentators have sought to draw a line from expenses to Brexit and the current distrust of Britain’s political class.
“Although most of the sums involved were trivial, it planted a powerful image in the minds of Daily Telegraph readers (it was the Telegraph that broke the story and ran with it day after day) of a political class professing virtue in public while privately milking the system for all it was worth,” writes Jonathan Coe in The New Statesman.
Public faith in the political system has now reached levels not seen since the height of the expenses scandal.
Last month, 72% of those surveyed told the Hansard Society that the UK’s democratic system needed “quite a lot” or “a great deal” of improvement – the highest percentage since 2010.
More worrying, HuffPost UK reports that “growing dissatisfaction with MPs is also leading people to entertain ‘radical solutions’ which challenge the core tenets of democracy”.
54% of people said “Britain needs a strong leader willing to break the rules”, while 42% think “many of the country’s problems could be dealt with more effectively if the government didn’t have to worry so much about votes in parliament”.
What started as a few MPs claiming for duck islands could end up tearing the very fabric of British democracy.
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