Wirral West MP Stephen Hesford demands “a new system” in the wake of MPs’ expenses scandal

May 20 2009 by Matt Hurst, Heswall News

WIRRAL West MP Stephen Hesford has demanded “a new system” of Parliamentary expenses as one of his constituency neighbours faces possible suspension from the Labour party.

Ben Chapman, MP for Wirral South, an area that stretches from Bebington to Eastham, stands accused of receiving £15,000 from the taxpayer to cover interest payments on a mortgage that had already been substantially cleared.

But Mr Chapman says he made the claims with the blessing of the Fees Office, whose role is to regulate and police the submissions of elected members.

Elliot Morley, Labour MP for Scunthorpe, was suspended from the party for making similar ‘phantom mortgage’ claims.

And Stephen Hesford, who has so far remained unscathed by the furore, told the News: “Get a new system and clean it up as soon as possible” but added that he did not want to comment on the controversy surrounding other colleagues.

The former barrister has seen his expenses claims hovering around the £21,000 mark over the last four financial years.

Between 2004 and 2005, Stephen Hesford claimed £17,896 for his ‘second home’ allowance.

This rose to £21,634 between 2005 and 2006, rising again to £22,048 over 2006 and 2007, before dropping down to £21,665 for the most recent accounting period, between 2007 and 2008.

Mr Hesford said he believes the Fees Office will release full details of all MPs’ expenses ahead of the July date initially proposed.

He said: “The Fees Office is going to publish and I hope they do it soon.

“I’d be very happy for my receipts to come out for the public to look at.”

Birkenhead MP, Frank Field took the unilateral step of publishing his full expenses on his website earlier this week, and urged colleagues to join him.

While Wallasey MP Angela Eagle defended her record of claiming among the lowest amount from the taxpayer in the House of Commons, adding that she too was “shocked by some of the revelations”.

Angela Eagle said: “It is a matter of public record that I don’t claim the maximum amount available.”

President of Wirral TUC, Alec McFadden runs workshops for those on benefits or facing mounting debt problems.

He told the News: “It’s a scandal and one of the things we need to consider is bringing MPs’ salaries into line with the average worker.”