Nick Clegg sends second letter to Sir Thomas Legg on MPs expenses

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, today wrote again to Sir Thomas Legg regarding his investigation in to MPs expenses.

In the letter, written alongside an article in today's Daily Telegraph, he expresses his concerns about the oversight of the inquiry. He was particularly concerned about those MPs who have claimed for a non-existent mortgages or 'flipped' their second homes purely for personal gain.

Nick Clegg's letter in full:

I am writing to you with regard to your ongoing enquiries into MPs' expenses.

I am, of course, glad that you are looking into cases where MPs have spent too much of taxpayers' money and asking them to repay it. The British people have been deeply angered by MPs' excesses and have every right to ask MPs to make amends. I have instructed Liberal Democrat MPs to cooperate fully with your investigations and abide by any reasonable requests for repayments.
But when your inquiry was first announced, I think most people expected the worst offences such as flipping to come under the toughest scrutiny. The letters sent this week, however, appear not to focus on these offences. If your review is to be seen as credible it must expose every single one of those MPs who claimed for a non-existent mortgage or 'flipped' their second homes purely for personal gain, some of whom then went on to avoid Capital Gains Tax. Some of these MPs appear to have made tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds in profits with the help of taxpayer subsidies. They must be exposed and these illegitimate profits returned.

If we want to begin to rebuild faith in politics, there can be no half measures; full compensation must be paid by MPs who have abused their constituents' trust.

Yours sincerely,
Nick Clegg MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats