The all party House of Commons Members Estimates Committee were asked in January 2008 to review MPs pay & allowances following the censure of Conservative Derek Conway for excessively paying his son for limited services. This Committee reported on 25th June 2008. Motions were tabled by Harriet Harman for debate on 3rd July 2008. The section on Expenses was introduced by Liberal Democrat Nick Harvey which essentially recommended strict tightening of the auditing procedures. Don Touhig, Labour, tabled an amendment which took most of the teeth out of the proposals & the Tories trooped in to support it, thereby defeating the original all party recommendations. Shortly afterwards Nick Clegg wrote to Cameron & Brown suggesting joint talks to fix the problem. He was ignored. Now we are supposed to believe that the Conservatives are 'reformers'.
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