Parliamentary Standards Bill

My hon. Friend refers to the body that many thought was going to be created. There are very good arguments for having a wholly independent body administering our salaries and allowances. That would free Members of Parliament from a burden which, frankly, we were showing ourselves very ill used to discharging, and which meant that we were coming in for a great deal of public criticism; in many cases, MPs did not want to go through the business of doing it because it attracted public opprobrium whatever decisions they came to. Those are really good and compelling arguments. The Government have muddied the waters. When the Prime Minister made his pronouncements on television, which did not appear to relate to having taken any prior advice, he indicated that this structure would have supervision of our conduct without thinking through the constitutional implications. Although he has since rowed back—under a great deal of pressure, I suspect, from several quarters—there has been an unwillingness to follow that through to its logical conclusion. I urge the Secretary of State—who is, after all, responsible for the rule of law in this country, for trying to maintain some clarity, and for protecting our constitution—not to create what appears to be a dog's breakfast. I will be interested to hear how he thinks these two things can, in practice, be reconciled when it is abundantly clear that if we breach the rules on parliamentary allowances, we bring ourselves directly in line for criticism in terms of our status as Members of this House. Having some clarity would help everybody.