Two more British lawmakers announced on Thursday they would resign in an expenses scandal which has thrown parliament into crisis, fueling calls for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to call early elections.
Margaret Moran of the ruling Labour Party and Julie Kirkbride of the main opposition Conservatives said they would step down at the next general election after days of pressure from angry constituents and the media.
Both were among the most notorious cases in the expenses row, which has seen 11 lawmakers quit since it erupted, including House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin.
Moran claimed US$35,000 from the public purse to treat dry rot in one of her homes, which was about 160km from the House of Commons in London and her constituency.
Kirkbride followed her husband, fellow Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Andrew MacKay, in quitting after the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported they both claimed allowances for a house they shared, effectively double-charging the taxpayer.
She also faced a string of other damaging claims, including using public money to fund an extension to her constituency apartment so her brother could stay and help with her childcare.
In her resignation letter to Conservative leader David Cameron, Kirkbride said she had been subjected to a “barrage of distorted press stories.”
Moran continued to deny any wrongdoing, saying she was going because the stories had had “a bruising effect upon my friends, my family and my health.”
As the main parties battle to regain public trust after the scandal, a handful of MPs have been ordered by their party leaders to pay back money from expense claims deemed too lavish, while others will have to appear before scrutiny panels which will determine if they have done anything wrong.
Brown is facing heavy pressure from Cameron to call a general election soon over the issue. He must go to the polls by the middle of next year at the latest and the Conservatives have a big lead in opinion polls.
In the clearest indication to date that increasing numbers of Labour figures believe the party is heading for a heavy defeat at the hands of the Conservatives, at least 52 MPs have formally approached the prime minister’s office at Number 10 Downing Street to be given places in the unelected upper house.
The MPs include current chairs of select committees, as well as past and serving middle and junior ranking ministers, Labour sources said. They account for a seventh of those elected at the last election.
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls said on Thursday that Labour would perform badly in the European and local elections on Thursday.
“In European and local elections, [held] before a general election the governing parties tend not to do so well,” Balls said. “That is going to happen to us. Of course it is. That is what happened in 2004.”
Others were more blunt.
“We are doomed,” one senior Labour figure said. “We’re all doing our bit in the elections but it is over for Labour.”
Another Labour figure said the keen interest in the Lords shown by the party’s MPs highlighted how disconnected senior figures are from the prime minister.
“They should look at how many peers Gordon has created — he is no fan of the upper house,” one former minister said.
Brown is expected to try to assert his authority soon after the elections with a Cabinet reshuffle.
But some of the prime minister’s strongest opponents at senior levels of the party are skeptical of a Cabinet-led challenge.
There is a feeling that the Cabinet had a chance last summer to move against Brown, but Foreign Secretary David Miliband blew his chances with a few poorly chosen interventions.
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