UK: FURIOUS PUBLIC DEMAND GENERAL ELECTION

FURIOUS PUBLIC DEMAND

GENERAL ELECTION

EMBATTLED: Anger at the greedy MPs outrageous expenses has led to the public demanding an election

By Macer Hall

Daily Express, May 16,2009

GORDON Brown was under pressure last night to call an immediate general election in the face of public fury over the Westminster expenses scandal.

Angry voters across the country are demanding a mass clearout of MPs.

At the same time, Scotland Yard has announced a team of leading police officers and prosecution lawyers will meet next week to decide what action to take against those who have abused the public’s trust.

A poll of voters yesterday found two-thirds want an election called as soon as poss­ible. The same number want MPs who have been named and shamed to be forced to stand down, according to the ComRes poll.

Sickened by the amount of taxpayers’ money wasted on moats, trouser presses and mole catchers and chocolate snacks, many fear the depth of sleaze revealed by the leaking of MPs’ expenses details means a significant section of the ruling establishment needs to be swept away for good.

Opposition MPs backed the call for an election as the only way of restoring trust in Britain’s political system.

ANGER: A window was smashed earlier today at MP Julie Kirkbride's office in a show of public anger

Some MPs even fear the country could be on the brink of becoming ungovernable given the weight of public anger towards politicians.

Tory leader David Cameron said: “Now is the time for change. Our politics is reviled, our ­Parliament is held in scorn, our ­people have had enough.”

The pressure for a snap election surged yesterday after the expenses scandal claimed another scalp.

Justice Minister Shahid Malik quit the Government over allegations that he claimed more than £66,000 over three years in second home allowance despite benefiting from subsidised rent.

He insisted he was standing down to clear his name and pleaded for the media “bloodfest” to stop.

But radio phone-in shows around the country were swamped with callers urging the dissolution of Parliament.

BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine said his lunchtime show was “inundated”. Caller Peter Harper, of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, said: “I think the trust of the country in Parliament has been utterly demolished.

“Parliament should be dissolved. There should be an election now. The MPs’ expenses for the last four years should be published in full.” Another caller, who gave her name as Irene, said: “Every person in this country is owed an apology.”

Mr Brown, who fears Labour will be virtually annihilated at the polls, is understood to be determined to cling on until the last possible date for an election in June next year.

By last night, a petition on the official Downing Street website calling for Mr Brown to resign had more than 58,500 backers.

Another opinion poll by YouGov yesterday put Labour on a 22 per cent share of the vote, a historic low not experienced since the First World War. Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s perfectly understandable that taxpayers want the corrupt political deadwood cleared out of Westminster.

“If an MP has proved they are unfit for public office, their constituents should have the right to vote them out.”

Many fear public frustration could lead to outbreaks of dis­order unless voters are given a chance to deliver their verdict at the ballot box.

A window was smashed by a brick at the Bromsgrove constituency office of Julie Kirkbride, a Tory MP linked to the expenses scandal, and another Tory, Alan Duncan, had a pound sign gouged in his lawn by vandals.

Housing minister Margaret Beckett and other MPs were heckled and booed on BBC1’s Question Time on Thursday.

Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, a leading campaigner against Westminster sleaze, called for an election this autumn.

“We need time for the smoke to clear,” he said. “It’s important that things calm down so we can make a rational judgment. And all three political parties need to be able to find which MPs have been doing wrong and deselect them, or we will just end up with the same candidates.

“By September, all the receipts will have been published and we will be in a position to judge, so we should have an election then. But I entirely understand the public anger.”

The scandal is expected to give minor parties such as the UK Independence Party and the Greens a boost in local council and Euro elections on June 4.

Earlier this week Lord Naseby, a former deputy Commons Speaker, said: “I think the Prime Minister has to face up to the fact that the very foundations of our democracy appear to be in dire trouble and in those circumstances we need a general election.”