Denis MacShane, the lachrymose MP for Rotherham, has been suspended following the Privilege and Standards Committee’s decision to report him to the Metropolitan
Police. MacShane also got into scalding water recently when he castigated a member of IPSA’s staff with what might be termed ‘most unparliamentary language’.
MacShane is one of the old guard who had a flagrant disregard for the public purse. But, even so, he has a point when it comes to IPSA. A bad
system is no better than one easily exploited. Ben Brogan explains in his Telegraph column:
‘No wonder then that they, along with the MPs who survived the May cull, are frustrated by the obstacles placed in their way by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. The watchdog was designed to oversee a more efficient and less costly expenses regime but it still struggles to make things work; the complaints keep coming.
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