Sort Expenses Now

9.01.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 19th May 2009

Political parties must act now to start rebuilding public confidence in the political process or extremists will benefit according to Graham Oakes, the Lib Dem PPC for Exeter.

"Replacing the Speaker is only the first step, though a necessary one, if we are to re-engage the public at large with the political process. The political leaders need to agree a temporary set of rules for expenses, similar to those that are used in the business world, until the Kelly Report is published."

"It is also vital that the political parties act swiftly to sort out the mess their MPs have created, by deselecting those who either broke the rules or acted against the spirit of the rules. The expenses are meant to be claimed to support the MP in doing their job, therefore MPs who flipped houses, claimed for already paid off mortgages, claimed for homes they only partly owned, for repairs to tennis courts, cleaning the moat or for horse manure should all be deselected."

"These MPs claimed to have acted within the rules but clearly they failed the moral test and are viewed by many as being corrupt. Parliament can not easily deal with the past actions of these MPs but the political parties can. By deselecting around 40 MPs the political parties would be acting in the public interest."

"If the political parties fail to act it will appear to many people that they are condoning these actions."

"If we fail to act I fear that extremists such as UKIP and the BNP will benefit, as they tap into public anger and we will have to put up with their bigoted views for the next four years. The people of Exeter deserve better than a bunch of little Englanders and racists."

"Normally sitting MPs have an incumbency factor that aids their re-election, unless this mess is sorted out hundreds of MPs who didn't make these ludicrous claims may lose their seats."