Britain’s Gordon Brown dismissed political rivals’ calls on Wednesday for an early election in response to public fury over lawmakers’ expenses, saying reform will do more good than the ”chaos” of a vote during a recession.
The prime minister, trailing badly in opinion polls before a parliamentary election due by June 2010, said his government’s priority must be to fix an economy battered by a recession, the worst since World War II.
The opposition Conservative Party, surging far ahead in opinion polls, has repeatedly urged Brown to call a snap election to allow voters to pass judgement on a scandal that has badly tarnished the ”Mother of Parliaments”.
”Do you really want to see tomorrow, in the midst of the recession, while the government is dealing with this, the chaos of an election?” Brown told GMTV, a breakfast television show.
Pressed later in Parliament by Conservative leader David Cameron to explain what he meant by ”chaos”, Brown said: ”What would cause chaos is if a Conservative government were elected.”
To roars of approval from his supporters and boos from Labour members, Cameron said Brown’s comment was ”the first admission that he thinks he is going to lose”.
Cameron, who says an early election is the only way to give British politics a fresh start, added: ”In the US they had an election in the middle of a banking crisis. Was that chaos?”
British lawmakers have triggered outrage by claiming taxpayers’ money for everything from pet food and bath plugs to tennis court repairs and watching pornographic films.
Lords suspended
The whiff of sleaze spread to the House of Lords, Britain’s upper house, on Wednesday when two members of the ruling Labour Party were suspended for offering to amend laws in exchange for money. It was the first time any member of the upper house had been excluded for more than 350 years.
Peter Truscott, a former energy minister, and Thomas Taylor will be suspended until the autumn when the current session of Parliament ends.
With trust in politicians from both houses at rock bottom, the government is rushing through reforms to the expenses system that will see an independent body checking expenses claims, ending parliament’s long tradition of self-regulation.
Politicians will be stopped from claiming public money for furniture and appliances, home improvements and gardening.
They will also be prevented from changing the designation of their second home — a practice known as ”flipping” — to take full advantage of a £24 000 annual allowance.
The government will learn on June 4, the date for local and European elections, whether the interim measures have done enough to appease voters.
Analysts say fringe parties, such as the far-right British National Party and pro-environment Greens, will get a boost on June 4 as voters punish the big parties over the scandal.
The controversy has hurt all major parties, but particularly Brown’s Labour party, in power for 12 years. A poll in the Daily Telegraph this week gave the Conservatives a 16-point lead over Labour. A second poll of Labour activists suggested six out of 10 want Brown to quit before the next parliamentary election.
If Labour do badly on June 4, it could spark a challenge to Brown’s Labour leadership and raise pressure on him to bring forward the parliamentary election.
Parliamentary Speaker Michael Martin, the most senior official in the lower house, stepped down on Tuesday, the first speaker to be forced from his post since John Trevor in 1695.
Anti-sleaze campaigner Martin Bell, a former MP, said the election of a new speaker, set for June 22, opened a ”wonderful opportunity for our democracy”.
Senior Conservative member of Parliament Alan Duncan told Sky News Britain had gone through ”almost a sort of spring revolution over the past few weeks”. — Reuters