Thanks to the Telegraph's devastating exposé, the cat is now completely out of the bag. Serious action needs to be taken by the individual MPs and parties with excessive claims returned, some MPs may need to be fired if they have lost the authority they need to do their jobs and the system needs to be reformed so that similar scandals don't arise in future.
Before that, we need the record set straight. The Telegraph shouldn't be the only source for this information and an official release of all the information the High Court ruled should be public is still absolutely necessary. By continuing to delay the official release of the full details of the expenses claims, even after the Telegraph has printed the most embarassing secrets, the Commons authorities aren't doing any service to MPs. Having everything out in the open might help to stem the collapse in the moral authority of Parliament.
It shouldn't just be the Telegraph, with access to a leak, who can sift through the details of MPs' expenses. The newspaper has done an invaluable public service in breaking the story and putting an end to the Speaker's attempts to keep this information from ordinary people but people should be able to look at all the details in the record and make up their own mind, and the scrutiny of thousands of interested taxpayers might uncover issues that the Telegraph haven't discovered.
We've organised a petitition with freedom of information campaigner Heather Brooke calling on the Commons authorities to release the information. Go here to sign it.
