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Parliamentary Standards Bill

Amendment 7 is obviously necessary, but I am afraid that it will never be sufficient to disabuse sections of the press of the view that MPs claim, personally collect and leave in their bank accounts a wide range of allowances for constituency office rents and staff wages. Numerous newspaper stories still appear implying that those allowances, which are actually transferred on to other people, are for the personal profit of the Member. I have often thought that a similar analysis of the salary of the editor of a newspaper that attributed to him the wages of that newspaper's staff and the rent of the building would produce similarly bizarre effects. I am glad that the Government have realised that direct payment is a valuable part of the system.