Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I shall be very brief. I want to start by apologising to my wife Fiona, my son Alistair, my other son James and my daughter Charlotte. I wish, on reflection, that I had made a great deal more money before I got into this place. If I had private wealth, I would not need to rely on the taxpayer to fund my excellent staff, my travel and the cost of my office. If I did not have to rely on the taxpayer to do those things, I would not fear the knock at the door from the media, the investigators or the new compliance officers. I and my family fear that knock at the door. We fear the reputational risks that now go hand in hand with being a Member of Parliament. Let me conclude my opening remarks by saying that over the past nine months I have seen many good and decent colleagues have their careers needlessly destroyed to sell a few newspapers. The loss of those colleagues to public life will be sorely felt by their constituents and this country. IPSA is going to take over the management and control of our pensions. I recognise that I will get an extremely good pension from having been a Member of Parliament—it is one of the best pensions in the public sector—but there should be a recognition that my colleagues and I make one of the largest contributions to their pension of any public sector worker. I think that the only comparable public sector group that makes such a significant contribution is firemen and fire officers. Yes, our pension is generous, but it is not as generous, when set against other pensions, as the press would have our electorate believe. Finally, it is important that compliance is proportionate and that we have safe harbour—that we can seek advice from qualified, expert people on how to comply. If the compliance system is to be successful, there must be a focus on ensuring that we, as Members of Parliament, get things right first time and that we understand the rules. As my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field) has said, so much of the advice that we have received from the Fees Office was given in good faith but has proved to be totally wrong. We cannot afford to allow that to happen again.