EXPENSE REFORM "TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE" SAY LIB DEMS

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 22nd Jul 2009

Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Durham, Carol Woods, says the Government's attempts to clean up Westminster politics do not go far enough.

Carol said, "MP's have been caught with their fingers in the till. Now they appear to be doing as little as they can get away with. Yesterday they passed a half-baked set of measures that will do very little to restore public trust."

Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems in Parliament have called for MPs to keep working through the summer until they have radically changed politics for the better.

Carol Woods said, "People should have the right to sack their MP. People should be able to trust their MP not to spend public money on satellite TV and expensive furniture. And party funding must be changed to stop politicians being in the pay of big business and the Unions.

"Durham's Labour MP claimed £158,000 in expenses last year. It's no wonder she voted in Parliament last July to keep her expenses secret. Only the shame of the expenses scandal has made her change her tune.

"This Labour Government has let us down once again. The opportunity for real change is being thrown away and the promises made at the height of the scandal are now being broken."