Residents to quiz MP over expenses
Monday 25th May 2009, 10:28AM BST.
Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski will hold a public meeting this week to allow his constituents to question him on the expenses debacle facing MPs.
Mr Kawczynski said he felt residents should be able to ask him about expenses he has claimed and what changes will be made to the system to prevent any future abuse.
It comes following reports that cabinet ministers paid accountants thousands of pounds of public money to complete their personal tax returns.
Chancellor Alistair Darling and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith were among those who claimed for accountancy bills on their expenses, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Kawczynski said: “I want to have the opportunity to talk to constituents directly about MPs’ expenses. I’ve come across a lot of anger.
“People want to know what costs are involved with staying in London, with running an office, the costs of communicating with constituents and travelling.”
Mr Kawczynski said he thought it would be a good idea if other MPs held meetings as well.
He said: “There’s never been a greater gulf between constituents and Members of Parliament.
“Some MPs have claimed for the most outrageous things and brought the rest of us into disrepute.”
Mr Kawczynski said he had gone over his expenses with a magistrate yesterday who would also be present at the event. The meeting will take place in the Regency Suite at the Lord Hill Hotel, Shrewsbury, on Thursday at 6.30pm.
To book a place at the meeting call (01743) 466477.
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This could be interesting! for some reason our MPs fail to see they have done anything in the eyes of the public!!!!
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I would prefer to question his fellow MPs in their prison cells.
The have stolen from the public purse and it is fraud.
Why haven’t the police got involved?
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This is not good enough. How many people will be able to attend at such short notice? This meeting will be full of the phrases that MPs have used since they were exposed, such as “It was in the rules” and “I have done nothing wrong”. I would like to see documents and receipts being produced and then the constituents can judge for themselves without spin. With Mr Kawczynski being closer to the top end of the highest expenses claimed table, I think this is perfectly reasonable and I do not represent any political party interest either.
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I for one do not think he has anything to worry about like many MP’S he has conducted himself well with regards expenses etc.
However i do not believe the leaders the tory’s,labour,lib dems, are doing what the public demand brown waffles, cameron tells us what we want to hear clegg well is clegg.
Mp’s are saying they will stand down at the next election? i want them to go now i do not want them to recieve any more of the tax payers money and i want them expelled from the relevent party’s. My next request is the powers that be stop expelled mp’s such as conway remaining in the house as an independant they should be evicted from the house and stopped from being an mp end the gravy train . As for the mp’s who have been cought doing something illegal i want them questioned and if need be prosecuted we have not yet seen a rouge MP arrested. If i do not see positive action, not seen to be doing something i will consider standing as an independant to make a point as i am sure many others are considering the same or voting for fringe party’s this will alter the political field mp’s who got in last time with winning by a few 1000 votes will lose there seats with out any doubt . Unfortunatly the mp’s who lose their seats will be the ones who have excellled in their role . The only ones to blame will be the leaders of the party’s.
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just you wait and see, dan is clean its labour that have come out of this worse, they are the party of sleeze, they are the ones who love to tax and spend, we are the low tax tories, we use money shrewdly and i cant wait til we take over and get rid of the silly social projects of this scottish communist who has siezed control of our great nation in a coup d’etat, down with clown brown, down with clown brown, lets have conservatives to clean up the sleezy socialist government and cut my taxes now
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Toryboy – Labour, Tories and libs have all come out of this very badly. I for one am getting fed up of the football fan status of political parties especially supporters ie Toryboy who only ever see things through rose tinted glasses or whom enjoy baiting the other main political party
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its definately more labour being dodgy but there are more of them, the tories are the most extravagent e.g. duck ponds, butlers etc
lib dems done best i think
sadly the BNP are gaining i fear
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As a self confessed Tory, I take no pleasure at all in stamping all these MPs with the same brush. There is nothing to choose between them and it is pointless playing the “which party is best card”. If they have made questionable claims, there must be no mercy, it means that they cannot be trusted and whatever party they come from, Labour, Tory, Lib Dem (yes, some really exorbitant claims from them as well), Welsh Nats, Scots Nats, Sinn Fein or uncle Tom Cobley and all, they must be sacked at least.
If any MP has the lack of judgement to make a wrongful claim or to exploit a weak system for purposes of financial gain, he/she should not be in a position to make judgements concerning our country. So please, no more party politics with the expences nonsense, let’s keep it balanced. Today we hear in the Telegraph of a Tory exploiting the system, tomorrow it will be Labour’s turn and Wednesday, who knows, the way things are going it could be Oliver Cromwell, the biggest fiddler of all.
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I cannot for the life of me understand why a JP should check his expenses, they are but lay people, they have no better grasp of what is right or wrong than the next man and I’m wondering whether they will offer such a service to other people in the county with tax returns etc?
If something amiss is found in the expenses do we take it that the JP would effectively then bring the judiciary into disrepute and have to fall on their sword?
This room at the Lord Hill surely it has a hire charge and it won’t be cheap, who is paying for it?
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An interesting comment from Norman,I wonder what the magistrates superiors will think if he has been used in this way,has the magistrate some form of political allegiance,politics and the juduciary should be kept at arms length; it could even look to be poor judgement getting dragged into this debacle.
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Everyone – please remember it’s NOT ALL MPs most parties have their greedy, corrupted members. IF you bring it down – what are you going to replace it with? Cameron is pretendnig he wants change, when all he wants is to have a ‘night of the long knives’ to clear out folk who he doesn’t want to have power. If he really wanted what he says ‘power to the people’ then, he’d be taking the anarchist route or starting a completely new party, no – he wants a clearout and business as usual. Not realising this, you will hand it to him on a plate.
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The control of the expenses system was obviously flawed and so many MPs simply exploited it for what it was worth! but the public have had enough of MPs saying they did nothing wrong and I did not break the rules etc. they milked the system full stop.
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