MPs' expenses for sale at £300,000
Tuesday, 31 March 2009 10:13 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
Details of MPs' expenses are being put on sale for £300,000, it has been claimed.
Sir Stuart Bell, who sits on the Speaker's Commons Estimates Committee, said about 650 MPs' details were available, and that the issue would now be investigated.
"All of the receipts of 650-odd MPs, redacted and un-redacted, are for sale at a price of £300,000, so I am told," he said to the BBC.
"The price is going up because of the interest in the subject.
"We have a pretty good idea of not the person, but the source, and that is a subject of a House of Commons investigation."
Sir Stuart continued: "It's probably a breach of the Official Secrets Act.
"It may be a theft, but we will get to the bottom of it. In the public interest, by the way.
"We don't believe the newspapers will pay for all of the 650 but they may wish to buy ten [of the details of those] in the limelight and make use."
The claim comes as parliamentary insiders go into overdrive to discover the source of a steady drip-feed of leaks around MPs' expenses, which had been put down to someone in the expenses office.
In a letter to the committee on standards in public life, which is looking into MPs' pay expenses, Gordon Brown muted the idea of scrapping the second home allowance altogether.
It could possibly be replaced by a simpler "overnight allowance".
"I would be grateful if you could look to both start and conclude the review earlier than previously indicated to allow us to make progress on the issue as soon as practical," Mr Brown wrote.
The letter comes as two of his front benchers - home secretary Jacqui Smith and employment minister Tony McNulty - face parliamentary standards inquiries about their second home allowance.
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