Seven Tory MPs make an expensive mistake

The vast majority of Tory MPs have, at David Cameron’s request, published further details of their expenses. The right to know forms they have had to produce are not hugely revelatory but do bring more information into the public domain which is to be welcomed. On my very quick flick through the most interesting things I noticed were that David Davis employs his wife as his executive secretary—the only top Tory to do so—and that David Cameron’s mobile bill is less than a 100 pounds a month.

Not every Tory MP, though, was prepared to open themselves up to even this fairly modest level of scrutiny. Miranda Richardson points out that seven Tory MPs have withheld their details from Cameron’s register.  They are Sir Paul Beresford, Bill Cash, Christopher Chope, Sir John Stanley, Anthony Steen, Nicholas and Ann Winterton. In the current climate, one can’t help but feel that these MPs have made a huge error of judgement.