Police to investigate as expenses row escalates

Gordon Brown has apologised on behalf of MPs of all parties over the expenses row as further revelations engulf the Tories. The Prime Minister said that where "wrongs" had come to light they should be addressed immediately. "I want to apologise on behalf of politicians on behalf of all parties for what has happened in the events of the last few days," he said. Later, in a statement to the House of Commons, Speaker Michael Martin told a half-empty chamber what voters have been saying all along - that "working to the rules alone" was not enough and it was important that MPs adhered to the "spirit of what is right". He added that the Commons needed to make "serious change" to the system of MPs' allowances and that the House of Commons Commission will meet later to give the matter immediate attention. It will consider the early release of expenses receipts which had been planned for July. He added that a new unit with independent oversight to examine MPs' expense claims would be "operating very shortly". More revelations have come to light and this time a large section of David Cameron's shadow cabinet has been dragged into the Commons expenses scandal. The latest leaks indicate that some senior Tories have engaged in the tactic of "flipping" property designations to claim more allowances. Among them, according to the Daily Telegraph, was shadow schools secretary Michael Gove - one of Mr Cameron's closest allies - who spent £7,000 over five months on a London property, before buying a house in Surrey and claiming thousands of pounds more on that. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley apparently renovated a Tudor thatched cottage using taxpayers' cash shortly before selling it. Shadow Welsh secretary Cheryl Gillan was forced to apologise after admitting she had put through dog food on expenses. And Oliver Letwin, chairman of the Conservatives' policy team, apparently received more than £2,000 to replace a leaking pipe under a tennis court. Meanwhile, shadow Leader of the House Alan Duncan is facing questions for reportedly running up a £4,000 bill on gardening, before being warned by officials that the spending "could be considered excessive". Mr Cameron reacted swiftly by issuing an apology for his party's involvement with Westminster's discredited allowances regime. But there will be relief at Conservative Central Office that he and the Tories' other two top figures, shadow foreign secretary William Hague and shadow chancellor George Osborne, seem to have escaped relatively unscathed. Mr Cameron said it was going to be "another bad day for parliament and frankly another bad day for the the Conservative Party". "We are sorry that this happened and it needs to change," he added. "We have to acknowledge just how bad this situation is and just how angry the public are. "We have to start by saying that the system we had and used was wrong and that we are sorry about that." The Daily Telegraph's latest revelations emerged as the Commons authorities mounted a desperate rearguard action to restore public confidence in the expenses system. A new independent audit unit - costing £600,000 a year to run - will take over scrutiny of claims. The ruling Commons Commission was also due to discuss whether it can rush through publication of more than a million edited claims receipts, in a bid to stop the newspaper's "drip drip" release of a leaked - and unedited - version.

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ITN | May 11, 2009

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