Party leaders back expenses move

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The leaders of the DUP and SDLP have welcomed proposed emergency changes to MPs' expenses.

They were proposed by speaker Michael Martin on Tuesday, after announcing he would quit over the row.

Party leaders agreed to proposals for a £1,250-a-month cap on rent and mortgage interest payments and a ban on "flipping" second homes in 2009/10.

Peter Robinson of the DUP and Mark Durkan of the SDLP said the current system had to be changed.

"This was a welcome initiative to call all the party leaders together.

"During the meeting the party leaders reached a consensus and agreed a set of interim proposals to take us through until the conclusion of the Sir Christopher Kelly Review," Mr Robinson said.

"This is not a time for tweaking at the edges. Any system put in place must command the confidence of the electorate."

Mr Durkan said: "Politics at large stands at a low ebb - there's a lot of anger out there and rightly so.

"That's why immediate action was needed yesterday, that's why party leaders agreed - it's the first time party leaders have been brought together on this.

"Some of us have been asking for quite a long time for the small parties to be involved in some of these discussions but we've always been excluded."

Alliance Party leader David Ford also said the expenses system should change.

"The expenses issue has destroyed public confidence in politics," he said.

"Politicians must now overhaul this failing system and do all they can to start restoring public confidence in the politics."

Jim Allister, leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice, said Northern Ireland MPs should now look at the issue of "double-jobbing".

"It could be ended overnight by the DUP, Sinn Fein and SDLP replacing their double-jobbers in the assembly," he said.

"The system already exists for substitution, so why the foot-dragging on MPs clinging to two jobs, or more?"