In 1911, the Liberal Government, while concerned with women’s suffrage and Irish Home Rule, also passed a Standing Order in Parliament to issue MPs with an annual salary of £400.  It was designed to assist the new Labour Party MPs, most of which had working class backgrounds and no means of private income, but who were needed, along with Irish Nationalist MPs, to support Lloyd George’s government.  (Ironically, the Liberals also passed the 1913 Trade Union Act, which permitted a political levy: the two pieces of legislation together helped the Labour Party overtake the Liberals in 1922.) 

The state payment helped ease the financial problems the Labour MPs faced, but Pelling notes it: “weakened the discipline of the parliamentary party still further.”

As Ed Miliband said earlier this week: “[It] is a challenge and a wake-up call to politicians about the systems that we have in place… I take my responsibility as an MP that we didn’t reform it earlier.”

Ever since the introduction of a wage for MPs, the system of allowances has not changed until change has been compelled upon the House of Commons.  Even in 1911, the introduction of state payment of MPs had to be passed by Standing Order, to stop the House of Lords blocking it.  The revelations of the Daily Telegraph since 8 May should also be a catalyst for change. There’s no point adhering to the rules if the rules themselves do not constrain.

Since 2000 all Labour MEPs’ expenses and accounts have undergone independent audits to ensure that they conform to European Parliament regulations and EPLP guidelines.  MPs expenses should go through a similar process, as the Prime Minister has announced.

The House of Commons should adopt something akin to Holyrood’s system, where all expenses claims require receipts that are then published online.  It should also group constituencies, as the Scottish Parliament does for the Edinburgh Accommodation Allowance, based on distance from Westminster to determine what MPs are entitled to a second home.

While I was flicking through Pelling to find the quote about 1911, I also came across Sidney and Beatrice Webb’s policy idea for the 1918 conference:

“The National Minimum, according to the statement, meant a comprehensive policy of full employment with a minimum wage and a minimum standard of working conditions, together with a maximum working week for forty-eight hours.”

Movement, not a monument.  We need to get back to work.