Paul Holmes MP condemns yesterdays vote in the Commons.

12.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 4th Jul 2008

Paul Holmes MP condemns yesterdays vote in the Commons.

Paul said:

"Yesterday I and the majority of MP's voted to reject the Independent Report saying we should have a £2,000 pay 'catch up' award. We also voted ourselves a below inflation pay rise for the SIXTH YEAR IN A ROW. Strangely enough that fact is never given any prominence in media reports each year!

However this year our continued pay restraint will certainly be swamped in the public mind by the second vote yesterday.

Labour MP's supported by 21 Conservatives and including 33 of Gordon Brown's Labour Ministers, rejected the proposals for independent professional auditing of how MP's spend taxpayers money.

My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I voted FOR reforms that would have brought MP's into line with the sort of professional financial accountability that applies to other public sector organisations -and that certainly applied in the 22 years I spent as a teacher in Derbyshire.

I cannot understand why Labour MP's and Ministers and some Conservatives, voted in this way but they will certainly regret it in terms of the public suspicion and hostility they have created."