The Committee for Standards in Public Life, chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly, today had its last scheduled hearing (though they may recall some witnesses post-recess). Secretary of State Jack Straw was up today, defending the hasty passage of the Parliamentary Standards Bill, which is due to become law next Tuesday if it passes the Commons [...]
Posted on July 16th, 2009 by Mike Rouse
Filed under: Kelly Report, blog | 1 Comment »
Press Release For Immediate release Chris Galley research director of the Sunlight Centre says of the "Bringing Jacqui to Justice" campaign for a private prosecution of Jacqui Smith MP: "We are very happy that on the first day of fund raising we have had something like a 100 donations online and raised £7,000. We wait [...]
Posted on July 15th, 2009 by chris
Filed under: blog, frontpage | 1 Comment »
As revealed exclusively in this morning’s Daily Mail, The Sunlight Centre for Open Politics have instructed Bark and Co solicitors to prepare to prosecute the former Home Secretary for fraud. The Sunlight COPs are now raising thousands of pounds for the case. Please donate to our cause by cheque, card or paypal here. Here is what the [...]
Posted on July 15th, 2009 by Sunlight Team
Filed under: blog, frontpage, projects | 4 Comments »
Sir Menzies Campbell is to chair an inquiry into the police raid on the Commons office of Tory MP Damian Green. The former Lib Dem leader will review how the Commons authorities deal with search requests from the police. The cross-party panel also includes former home secretaries David Blunkett and Michael Howard and ex-foreign secretary [...]
Posted on July 10th, 2009 by chris
Filed under: blog | No Comments »
A House of Lords committee has said that the recent Parliamentary Standards Bill has been drawn up "behind closed doors" and seemed most concerned with "public perception" The government says it is "imperative" that a new independent regulatory body for MPs’ expenses be set up quickly. The Parliamentary Standards Bill cleared its Commons stages last [...]
Posted on July 7th, 2009 by chris
Filed under: blog | 1 Comment »
Miss Blears wrote out a cheque for £13,000 to avoid capital gains tax- claiming she had done nothing wrong – before resigning from her post as communities minister on the eve of the crucial local and European elections in June. She subsequently apologised for her timing of her resignation, saying it was “stupid, thoughtless and [...]
Posted on July 6th, 2009 by chris
Filed under: blog | No Comments »
The complaint to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner came from the chairman of the Labour Party in Mr Osborne’s Tatton constituency, Laurie Burton. The complaint is about Mr Osbourne’s Additional Costs Allowance between 2001 and 2003. It states that he wrongly identified his main home for claims for the allowance and that from 2003 Mr Osbourne [...]
Posted on July 2nd, 2009 by chris
Filed under: blog | No Comments »