UK: Voters want rorting MPs to be opposed

Voters are clamouring for independent candidates to challenge MPs caught up in the Commons expenses scandal at the next election.

A survey published yesterday discloses that almost 80 per cent of electors believe non-party candidates should stand against MPs caught behaving "unethically".

Three Tory backbenchers have said they will not contest the next election and several Labour MPs are expected to be barred from standing again. However, dozens of MPs accused of milking the expenses system will face voters in the election likely to take place next spring.

Yesterday, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said the "systematic humiliation" of MPs was threatening Britain's democracy.

Dr Williams said the issues raised by the expenses scandal were grave, but that "many will now be wondering whether the point has not been adequately made: the continuing systematic humiliation of politicians itself threatens to carry a heavy price in terms of our ability to salvage some confidence in our democracy".

Ian Gibson, the Labour MP who claimed expenses on a flat in which his daughter was living, was referred to the party's "star chamber" yesterday, which will decide whether he should be deselected as a candidate. He has said he is ready to stand down in Norwich North if voters want him to quit.

Celebrities could mount high-profile challenges to sitting MPs.

Esther Rantzen, the television presenter, has said she would be "80 per cent certain" to stand against Labour's Margaret Moran, who claimed £22,500 ($58,400) for treating dry rot at a home 160km from her Luton South constituency.

And Lynn Faulds Wood, the television consumer campaigner, said she is considering running for a parliamentary seat.

Phillip Oppenheim, a former Tory minister, is threatening to try to unseat the Tory Andrew MacKay, who resigned as leader David Cameron's parliamentary aide over his "unacceptable" claims.

Martin Bell, who served as an anti-sleaze MP between 1997 and 2001, said candidates should not underestimate the problems they faced, but that the expenses furore had made the ground more fertile for them.

He refused to rule out standing against Cabinet Minister Hazel Blears at the election: "It's always hard to stand against the main political parties. You have to win every vote - there are no inherited or traditional votes - no one votes for you because their grandfather did."

- INDEPENDENT