Police probing MPs' expenses
- 00:01:38
- ITN
Police probing MPs' expenses
Several MPs and peers are facing a full criminal investigation into allegations they misused their expenses, Scotland Yard has said. Meanwhile, MPs have paid back nearly £500,000 of taxpayers' money in a bid to quell voters' anger since the expenses scandal broke. The news came as the House of Commons was accused of an attempted cover up after the official release of MPs expenses was heavily censored. Figures released by the Commons authorities showed £478.615.07 has been returned by MPs who broke rules or who decided to hand back cash in a bid to quell constituents' anger. Among them were MPs whose claims had not previously been publicly questioned and dozens of cases of politicians giving back claims from recent months - not yet made public. The figures were released hours after campaigners reacted with fury to the heavily-blacked out official publication of more than a million expenses claims. Critics said that the severely-edited disclosure showed the worst abuses at Westminster, including payments for moat cleaning, would never have come to light if a full version had not been leaked. MPs passed a measure exempting their addresses and other "security-sensitive" information from publication - meaning practices such as "flipping" second homes would have remained hidden. The cases of Labour MPs David Chaytor and Elliot Morley, who claimed thousands of pounds in "phantom" mortgage interest, were only uncovered when addresses were cross-referenced with other official records. Campaigner Heather Brooke, who helped secure the publication, said it was clear "avoiding embarrassment has been the key motivating factor of what's been deleted". Tory leader David Cameron, who did not appear on the list, announced he would pay back £267 claimed in error, on top of £680 previously announced. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made four separate repayments, totalling just over £800 which a spokesman said were to rectify "inadvertent errors or for the avoidance of doubt". Among the biggest sums were from Labour ex-minister Keith Vaz £11,306, shadow solicitor general Jonathan Djanogly £25,000, Tory deputy speaker Sir Alan Haselhurst £14,574.82 and junior culture minister Barbara Follett £32,976.17. The biggest sum to be handed back so far is the £42,674 promised by Health Minister Phil Hope and the smallest the £1 returned by Labour's Madeleine Moon.
ITN | June 20, 2009
