July 31^st 2008

In a letter to the Medway Messenger and Your Medway, Paul has set out his views on MPs’ expenses and pay. This comes in response to factually incorrect comments made by Liberal Democract Andrew Stamp.

Dear Editor,

I write in response to Councillor Andrew Stamp’s letter (Your Letters July 23 “Confidence Crucial over MPs’ expenses”). I agree that there needs to be full accountability, proper auditing and more openness, but the Councillor has, unfortunately, been “economic with the truth”.

He claims that I voted myself a pay rise. Whilst this is correct in as far as the statement goes, Cllr. Stamp neglects to mention that I also chose to vote for the lowest possible rise suggested to MPs by the independently-run Salary Review Board and I voted against awarding MPs an additional £650 per year in a ‘catch-up’ scheme to achieve parity with senior civil servants.

The Councillor also claims that I abstained on the vote on MPs’ expenses. This is wrong; I did not take a conscious decision to avoid voting – the simple fact was that my constituency commitments came first. At the time of the vote (5.20pm) I was travelling to support the young people of Medway at the annual Try Angle Awards, recognising their hard work and commitment to others. Had I been able to take part in the vote, I would have supported the abolition of the so-called John Lewis list, in line with the Estimate Committee’s recommendations.

I hope this helps to clarify the true position with regards to my votes in the House of Commons on this issue on 3 July.

Paul Clark MP