Today's edition of The Journal published my letter politely asking Hexham's Tory MP to disclose whether he employs any family members, and if he does, to disclose what they do, how much they get paid, and whether they work full or part-time. It is high time the cobwebs are blown away from Parliament, which needs to to be treated like any other public sector entity spending millions of pounds of taxpayers money - with absolute transparency and accountability.
For the avoidance of doubt, I don't see anything necessarily wrong with an MP employing his or her spouse or partner - professional politics is a hard business, often tough on marriages. What is crucial is that voters are allowed to know what goes on so they can make up their own mind on the issues raised by MPs employing family members at the taxpayer's expense.
Unlike Gordon Brown, David Cameron does not intend to order his backbench MPs to disclose their employment of family members. Since I am confident Hexham's MP has nothing to hide on this issue, surely it's right for him to disclose these matters voluntarily.
No comments:
Post a Comment