Kelly warns expenses reforms must be implemented

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Westminster will not be able to move on from the expenses scandal until the practise of employing family members has been halted, according to the Whitehall sleaze watchdog.

Appearing before the Northern Ireland Assembly standards and privileges committee, Sir Christopher Kelly said that it would take a long time for MPs to regain the trust of the public.

"In no other sphere, with the partial exception of GP practices, would it for one moment be thought remotely appropriate to employ family members," he said.

"Taking all that into account we came to the view that employment of family members should cease after a reasonable transitional period.

"Unless and until that happens I don’t think that the Westminster parliament will be able to feel and to demonstrate that there arrangements for supporting MPs are being completely cleaned up."

"It is absolutely essential now that in Westminster people should be able to demonstrate the expenses system has been completely overhauled."

And the chairman of the committee on standards in public life said he was conscious that the practise of employing family members was even more widespread in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

"I recognise that in Northern Ireland, as is so often the case, there are particular circumstances and a particular history," he said, "I hesitate to get into that, because frankly I don’t know as much about it as you do."

But he said he would be "surprised" if exactly the same principles did not apply to members of the assembly as to members of Parliament.

Sir Christopher said there had been a trend in other legislatures towards banning the employment of family members.

It had been stopped in Scotland, was close to being stopped in Wales, and had been banned in the United States House of Representatives and the European Parliament, he added.

He also criticised the practise of parliamentarians holding dual mandates, or full time second jobs.

"Being a member of the Westminster Parliament in itself ought to be a full time job," he said.

"Therefore doing another full time job is incompatible with that in the extreme."

But he said he had "no objection" to MPs undertaking some outside work such as journalism or occasional professional work in order to "keep their hand in" so they had a job to go back to when they left politics.

And while he said he was "second to none" in his admiration for the work MPs do, he said there were many in Westminster who failed to blow the whistle on the expenses system and were "guilty of going along with a flawed system".

"In Westminster there were many of people who must have known the expenses system was flawed."

But he said in their defence: "Even though some may have suspected something was wrong it wasn’t until the full details were revealed, initially by the Daily Telegraph, that many of them could have been aware to the extent to which a number of their colleges were exploiting the system."

"It will take some time before the reputation of politicians improves," he concluded.

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