Cameron urges expenses transparency

David Cameron has pledged to increase transparency over MPs' expenses ahead of proposals for a shake-up of the current system.

The members' estimates committee will on Wednesday publish its "root-and-branch" review of the system.

And the Conservative leader said on Monday that the controversy surrounding MPs' parliamentary allowances was a cross-party problem.

He said his frontbench would publish a detailed breakdown of their expenses and allowances before recess at the end of July.

"I think in the long-run the only real answer on this expenses issue is transparency because I think in that way we can encourage every MP not just to meet the letter of the law but also to meet the spirit of the law," he said.

"On expenses and transparency, transparency is the way ahead."

Cameron was speaking on Monday following allegations that shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Phillip Hammond had failed to declare millions of pounds of private earnings.

And he said it was "very clear" that Hammond had obeyed the law and that his shareholdings had been declared in the register of members' interests.

"If there is wrongdoing I will act, if people are behaving inappropriately I will act," he said.

"But I think you have to make sure that decisiveness is also mixed with fairness and it's very important to find out the truth of some of these stories before you leap in."

On the issue of transparency, he said he was "not trying to paint to Conservatives as knights in shining armour coming from outside Westminster and riding in and cleaning up the augean stables of British politics.

"We are part of the problem, we must be part of the solution and I like to think that under my leadership we are actually taking steps that will solve these problems."

A culture that had developed in Westminster over the years in which MPs accepted they would not get big pay rises but were offered expenses and allowances, Cameron said.

He added: "That was never right, but that culture grew up. And we now have quite rightly a culture of wanting transparency and clarity and so we have to drive that through."

The Tory leader also said he had reformed party funding to rely less on a few large donors. "I think that's a much more healthy situation and on that basis I'm quite prepared to have a limit on donations," he said.

"I think on funding, the position is much healthier, the position is much stronger, and the base is much wider."

He also said that MEPs who refuseed to be more open about their expenses could "theoretically" be thrown out of the party.

"I think that people who travel under a Tory banner, we've got to be clear that we are happy about the way they are behaving and the standards they are upholding," he said.

"We've got to sort out this issue of MEPs' expenses and allowances and have greater transparency and we need everyone to row in the same direction."