MPs must declare all payments

In the Houses of Parliament this week there was a proposal from a backbench MP to have the Freedom of Information Act amended.

If successful, this would have excluded MPs from the provisions of the act.

Amongst other things this would have had the effect of stopping people inquiring about the huge expenses that MPs claim.

Due to the Freedom of Information Act we have been able to establish that MPs make very substantial expense claims and do not seem to be answerable to anybody for doing so.

There are MPs who are preaching to us all to use cars less and use public transport more and yet they put in huge claims for mileage and use planes and helicopters. In my book that makes them hypocrites.

Out of more than 640 MPs that had a vote on the proposal, only six were going to vote against it.

In the end the amendment failed due to one of the six MPs using up the time available to talk it out.

It gives me the impression that the rest of the MPs wanted things to change so that they could carry on with their cosy little number of making the most of the gravy train of expenses.

None of the Shropshire MPs were prepared to vote against the amendment.

I throw down a challenge to the editorial team of the Shropshire Star to contact each of the Shropshire MPs and to ask them why they were not prepared to vote against the amendment.

Richard Breeze, Telford