Taking action on MPs expenses

12.22.23pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 22nd May 2009

Hard hitting rules on MPs expenses and plans to modernise the House of Commons have been brought in by the Liberal Democrats

Earlier this week the Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg MP and party president Ros Scott, agreed a series of hard hitting points on expenses.

In summary it was agreed that:

• There will be a code of conduct binding on Liberal Democrat parliamentarians and candidates.

• All Liberal Democrat MPs will support the proposals from Sir Christopher Kelly's review of MPs' expenses.

• There will be no picking and choosing of which of his recommendations to support.

• The leader and Chief Whip in the House of Lords will undertake a thorough review of expenses and allowances in the House of Lords.

• We will campaign to end the self-regulation of Parliament.

• Any Liberal Democrat MP found to have committed serious wrongdoing will have the whip withdrawn and be referred by the party to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. This is in addition to the very rigorous internal disciplinary procedures that already exist within the parliamentary parties, overseen by the Chief Whips.

This agreement follows Nick Clegg's public action which led to the resignation of the Speaker and a series of calls for the government to bring Parliamentary procedures into the 21st century to make the place work for the British people not the politicians. It is now the Liberal Democrats who are leading the campaign for the radical overhaul our political system needs.