A lot has been written, and said, about Members of Parliament and their expenses and whilst I do not like to write about personal things I do believe it is important that electors should understand what is involved here. When I first entered the House of Commons, in 1970, Members of Parliament received a salary of £3,250.00 a year. The only other assistance that they received was £500.00 a year towards the cost of employing a secretary and travelling between London and the constituency. So, like many of my colleagues, I paid, out of my own pocket, for extra secretarial assistance – and my wife worked for me without any payment whatsoever for many years.

The world has moved on a great deal in the last twenty years. Members of Parliament are now allowed to claim for the expense of living in London when Parliament is sitting. The allowance that I receive pays, therefore, for the rent of my London flat and for some, though not all, of the incidental expenses involved in running it. I am allowed to claim for the mileage that I do within the constituency, as well as my journeys too and from London. In addition I am able to employ three people and that, I fear, is necessary because my constituency secretary, who has worked for me in one capacity or another, for almost thirty years calculates that the constituency post bag has increased at least four-fold over the last twenty years and the mail I receive in London has increased by a similar amount. Sometimes an issue will generate a vast amount of correspondence. Last year I received some 13,000 letters protesting at the plans to expand the so-called Business Airport. Each one had to be acknowledged and sent on to the Minister. More recently we have had a very large number of letters on the M6 proposals.

If a Member of Parliament is to serve his constituents properly they expect their concerns to be addressed when they write to him and they expect him to be in Westminster when Parliament is in session. The vast majority of Members of Parliament, regardless of Party or constituency, endeavour to do a proper job conscientiously and well but, of course, none of us enjoys permanent security of tenure. Every four or five years those whom we represent have the opportunity to pass judgement on our stewardship.