TWO veteran Conservative MPs, who were censured last year over their second home allowances, have announced they will stand down from Parliament at the next general election.
Sir Nicholas Winterton and his wife, Ann, said they wanted to spend more time with their family, and party sources said it was not known whether the recent furore over MPs’ expenses had contributed to their decision to quit.
Meanwhile, Labour sought to regain the initiative on expenses ahead of the June 4 European Parliament elections by announcing that, in future, its MEPs will publish all receipts for the £44,000-a-year office allowance – a step which no other major party has yet taken.
And Health Secretary Alan Johnson urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to respond to the appetite for radical change in the way Westminster is run by offering a referendum on electoral reform.
Mr Johnson, who denied his intervention was intended to bolster his case to succeed Mr Brown as Labour leader, said the current mood of “public anger and disquiet” meant the time was right to revive proposals drawn up by Lord Jenkins during Tony Blair’s first term in power, which have been gathering dust since their publication in 1998.
Voters should be asked at the time of the general election whether they want to retain the first-past-the-post system for Westminster ballots, or move to the proportional system favoured by the Jenkins Commission, known as Alternative Vote Plus, he said.
The Daily Telegraph, which has obtained leaked details of all MPs’ claims for second home expenses, announced that its investigation had passed the halfway mark – raising the prospect that dozens more MPs will face publicity over their claims in the 10 days before the European and council elections.
