From left to right are Keith Flett, Julie Davies, Tony Hartney and Lynne Hale with a member of David Lammy’s staff in the background.
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Yesterday morning, David Lammy MP invited local journalists, Tottenham residents and community figures to inspect his Parliamentary expenses in the interest of transparency and to illustrate he has nothing to hide. The meeting took place in Tottenham at the College of North East London.
David Lammy said after the meeting: “The last couple of weeks have created an unprecedented crisis in people’s belief in politics, shaking everyone’s trust in politicians and Parliament. Since the beginning of the expenses debate I have been working hard with the Parliamentary authorities to open my expenses claims to public scrutiny and I intend to publish them on my website for everyone in Tottenham to see at the earliest opportunity. “This process is ongoing and should be complete by next week, but I was not satisfied to wait until then. So yesterday in the interest of transparency I invited a group of key community figures and journalists from Tottenham to inspect my expenses. “Next week, I will be publishing my expenses in full on my website and asking for copies to be placed in Tottenham’s libraries for my constituents to review. I also intend to regularly publish all new expenses I incur in a timely way.
“Tottenham residents, especially in these difficult times would expect nothing less than this level of openness, and I hope my commitment will go some way to helping to restore local residents’ trust in Parliament.
“My expenses have been wholly incurred supporting my work as Tottenham’s MP, and in running a busy office which serves residents from one of the most deprived communities in Britain. “I am committed to seeing this system of Parliamentary expenses reformed, and welcome the fact that in the coming weeks we will have the chance in Parliament to elect a new Speaker who must be dedicated to rebuilding the public’s trust in politics and Members of Parliament.” Invited to the meeting were journalists from the three major Tottenham newspapers as well as community representatives. Julie Davies from Haringey NUT, Tony Hartney CBE head of Gladesmore Community School, Lynne Hale Executive Director of Haringey Shed and Keith Flett President of Haringey TUC were able to attend the meeting. Keith Flett commenting on David Lammy MP’s expenses said: "David's expenses were not quite as 'interesting' as some of those from other MPs exposed in the media, which is exactly what I would have expected from him. In the interest of transparency it is right this information should be in the public domain. “I am happy to say that no one would have expected an MP like David, with his record and background to be anything other than straight down the line on expenses, and that this is what democracy in a constituency like Tottenham demands."
Background:
For the headline expense figures broken down by area of expenditure please visit http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/david_lammy/tottenham. A full explanation of the existing expenses system can be found in Parliament’s Green Book http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/GreenBook.pdf David Lammy has also written an article about the wider issue of expenses for the pressure group Compass please click here to read it.
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