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Maria Miller expenses scandal: Tory MP ‘says Cameron would have sacked her days ago – if she was called Mark' Maria Miller expenses scandal: Tory MPs warn Culture Secretary's continued presence in Cabinet is damaging the party as she tells constituents 'I have let you down'
(about 5 hours later)
A Conservative MP has reportedly claimed that if Maria Miller had been a man she would have been sacked over the ongoing expenses scandal days ago. Some politicians claim they are “too busy” to worry about their standards of behaviour, three independent members of the Commons anti-sleaze watchdog warned as they demanded a sweeping overhaul of how MPs police themselves.
The anonymous backbench Tory was quoted in the Huffington Post as saying David Cameron may have reacted differently to the situation, were Ms Miller not one of the party's few high profile female figures. Their intervention came as David Cameron faced open rebellion on the Tory benches over his decision to stand behind the Culture Secretary Maria Miller after she was forced to apologise over her parliamentary expenses.
The Culture Secretary has been criticised in recent weeks after she was forced to pay back £5,800 of expenses by a committee of MPs, and faces an online petition demanding she repay the £45,000 originally recommended by an independent watchdog. The issue is set to come to a head tomorrow night at a meeting of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs which will be addressed by the Prime Minister.
But after the Prime Minister came in for criticism from Labour for appearing in the Commons with an all-male front bench, Mr Cameron has continued to stand by Ms Miller. As several MPs went public over the damage the episode is doing to the party, Mrs Miller's ministerial aide mounted a fight-back, accusing newspapers of indulging in a “witch-hunt” because of the Culture Secretary's role in overseeing the press.
"I do wonder if her name was Mark Miller something different might happen. Colleagues think he would have been gone a week ago," the MP told the Huffington Post. Pressure for reform of the system of self-regulation of the Commons has grown since MPs on the Standards Committee watered down a recommendation from the Standards Commissioner that Mrs Miller repay £45,000 of mortgage overpayments.
"Any expenses scandal is a plague on all our houses. Backbenchers of all parties. It fills us full of dread, because it just drops the whole standing of parliament another notch with our electorate. It doesn't look good. The committee's three lay members, who take part in discussions but are not allowed vote on its reports, added their weight to the calls with a stinging analysis of its operation.
"There is no mention of 649 MPs whose expenses weren't under scrutiny in the last week. We are all tarred with the same brush." In a joint statement, they demanded an urgent “fundamental rewrite” of the Code of Conduct governing MPs' behaviour to ensure it is “seen to be fit for purpose and future-proofed for the digital world and for the next Parliament”.
This morning Boris Johnson became the latest high-ranking Tory to refuse to give Ms Miller his unqualified support. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme he nonetheless said it appeared to him that she was being "hounded" and, when pressed, added: "She is staying." The trio - Sharon Darcy, Peter Jinman and Walter Rader - said the Commons needed to prove it was “not just paying lip service to the importance of high standards” and reported: “Several of those we have met have said that elected members were often 'too busy to spend much time on standards'.”
The MP for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, went further and told Radio 5Live that he was surprised the minister had not quit. Ms Miller kept a low profile when she arrived for a cabinet meeting in Downing Street this morning, 8 April 2014. She has received the backing of the Prime Minister David Cameron (Reuters)
Jackie Doyle-Price, the MP for Thurrock, the most marginal Tory-held seat in the country, suggested the episode would cost the party votes in next month's European elections and next year's general election. She said: "If I were in that position, facing a difficult set of local elections, I wouldn't be expecting my colleagues to defend me." Ms Miller kept a low profile when she arrived for a cabinet meeting in Downing Street this morning, 8 April 2014. She has received the backing of the Prime Minister David Cameron (Reuters) They also disclosed that some committee meetings had even been abandoned because no MPs turned up.
Ed Miliband, the Labour MP, also intervened for the first time in the controversy, saying that Mr Cameron had Downing Street sources have insisted that Mr Cameron would not bow to growing demands for Mrs Miller to be fired over her expenses claims.
"some serious questions to answer" over her approach to the expenses investigation and her "perfunctory" apology. The Culture Secretary sought to repair some of the damage caused by her brief apology to the Commons last week by telling her constituency newspaper, the Basingstoke Gazette, of her remorse over the saga. She said: “I am devastated that this has happened, and that I have let you down.”
The Liberal Democrat schools minister David Laws, who was forced to resign as chief secretary to the Treasury over his expenses claims, said he was willing to back Ms Miller. Her parliamentary private secretary, Mary Macleod, claimed her boss was the victim of a media “witch hunt” because of her role in implementing the Leveson Report on newspaper standards and legislating for same-sex marriages.
"She's another member of the Government and of course she has my support, just as she has the Prime Minister's, which is the support that really counts." “In some of the newspapers it has been like a witch hunt where they don't like the work that Maria has done on Leveson and gay marriage,” Ms MacLeod said.
When asked if her situation was similar to the one which saw him step down, Mr Laws said "each set of circumstances is different". “Therefore what they are trying to do is to find a way to get her out of the job.”
Last week Ms Miller gave a 32-second apology to the Commons - described as "contemptuous" by Labour in a formal complaint. The Conservative employment minister Esther McVey admitted to ITV's The Agenda that "I can honestly say it wouldn't be how I would have made an apology". However, a succession of Conservative MPs broke their silence to warn that Mrs Miller's survival in the Cabinet was damaging the party.
While the pressure on Ms Millers appeared to be growing among her fellow politicians, it had already reached a critical level with members of the general public. In his first public comments on the controversy, the Ed Miliband said Mr Cameron faced “serious questions” over the issue.
A ComRes survey suggested that more than two in three Tory supporters, and around three-quarters of voters in general, think Mr Cameron should have sacked her by now. “The ball is in his court - he's got to answer those questions about her status in the Government,” the Labour leader said.
A Change.org petition calling for Ms Miller to either "pay back £45,000 in fraudulent expense claims or resign" has received more than 138,000 signatures in just four days. ‘Extremely damaging’: Tory MPs on Miller case
Zac Goldsmith, MP for Richmond Park “I am surprised Maria Miller hasn’t stepped down. This is a decision for her to make or it is a decision for David Cameron to make.”
Philip Davies, MP for Shipley “Whether she resigns is a matter for her but obviously the whole thing is extremely damaging for the Conservative Party, it’s damaging for Parliament as a whole... we all get tarnished by the same brush.”
Matthew Offord, MP for Hendon “Knocking on doors in my constituency this weekend, people did raise the expenses issue, and they believe nothing has changed.”