GRAVY TRAIN COMES OFF THE RAILS FOR MACKAY

3.08.25pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 15th May 2009

Tory MP is forced to pay back thousands or leave the Party

David Cameron's decision to reject the claims made by Andrew Mackay MP for a second-home allowance has thrown the future of Bracknell's MP into considerable doubt. Having resigned as the Leader's senior Parliamentary aide, Mr Mackay must now decide whether he can accept the ruling of the Party's scrutiny panel on the amount that should be paid back or lose the Party whip.

Mr Mackay has represented Bracknell for more than 25 years and yet it now transpires he has never lived in the constituency at all. Many had assumed that Mr Mackay did have a home in the constituency but this was never confirmed perhaps for security reasons. His main address is evidently in London and he shares a second home in Bromsgrove, where his wife is also an MP.

While there is no obligation for an MP to reside their constituency, the case for Mr Mackay to claim a second-homes allowance is futher undermined by the fact that Bracknell is within easy commuting distance of London. Other local MPs have not found it necessary to claim the allowance and if Mr Mackay and his wife felt obliged to do so, they should perhaps have made the claim between them, as others have done.

Commenting on the worrying collapse in public support for MPs and Mr Mackay's position in particular, Ray Earwicker, Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bracknell, 'said it was clear the lack of proper enforcement and the subsequent abuse of the system meant that there had to be changes. He was in favour of the more traditional and simpler ways of funding exceptional expenditure by providing, for example, an overnight allowance for unavoidable stays in London.

Mr Mackay deserved little sympathy for his plight because he had certainly acted against the spirit of the rules, if not the rules themselves. He had never supported greater transparency in Parliament and had opposed the Liberal Democrat proposed external audit of MPs' expenses, which was now likely to be adopted following the revelations in the Daily Telegraph. If Mr Mackay had claimed mortgage interest on the homes he had bought with taxpayer help, he should also offer to hand back any profits on the eventual sale of the properties, as Nick Clegg and the Lib Dem Shadow cabinet had done.'