Wave of new MPs will wash away expenses scandal

With almost 130 MPs planning to retire at the next election, will the fresh wave of new parliamentarians restore our faith in the House?

In a sign that politicians still fail to grasp the public's fury, MPs are threatening a mutiny over demands to pay back more than £1m of "fiddled" allowances, says Tim Shipman in the Daily Mail. Sir Thomas Legg, the former Whitehall mandarin commissioned by Gordon Brown to audit MPs' expenses (at an alleged cost of £1m), has sent letters to more than 500 MPs demanding repayments unless they can justify their claims. The worst offenders face demands for more than £100,000.

Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell complains that Sir Thomas has introduced new rules and caps retrospectively "against fairness and the rules of natural justice", says The Daily Telegraph. But this isn't about rules, it's about behaviour. MPs shouldn't need to be told in detail how much taxpayers' money they can spend.

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