Potential MPs could be put off public life (From The Argus)

Potential MPs could be put off public life

9:00am Thursday 2nd July 2009

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Greater openness about what members of Parliament are claiming on their expenses and what they are earning from outside jobs may put off potential politicians from standing for election, Sussex MPs have said. So will some potential candidates question whether public life is worth the hassle? Parliamentary Correspondent Andy Tate reports.

Lewes MP Norman Baker and Brighton Kemptown MP Des Turner have warned there is a risk that moves to tighten Parliamentary rules and place members' behaviour under ever-closer scrutiny could prompt all but the most determined "professional politicians", with little experience of life outside Westminster, to throw in the towel.

Yesterday (Weds) new rules came into effect which will, for the first time, force MPs to declare details of all their outside earnings and the hours spent on them.

Horsham MP Francis Maude, who has juggled his Parliamentary work with no fewer than three corporate posts that took him away from his main job for roughly 348 hours a year, paying him almost £70,000, has already announced he will be dropping his outside interests at the end of the year.

Meanwhile, a radical overhaul of the Parliamentary expenses system is expected after Sir Christopher Kelly, the chairman of the Committee for Standards in Public Life, reports back with recommendations for reform in the autumn.

Both Mr Baker and Dr Turner insisted they backed moves towards greater transparency - but suggested it might lead to some potential candidates questioning whether public life was worth the hassle.

Their comments follow the surprise decision last week of the Conservative Parliamentary hopeful for Brighton Pavilion, David Bull, to quit his candidacy in favour of heading up a party policy review on sexual health.

The celebrity doctor, whose television appearances had boosted his profile, said his increased workload meant he would not have time to continue his general election bid.

Mr Baker, the Liberal Democrats' transport spokesman, said: "Transparency is one thing but if you push the rules too far there's a danger we'll be left with professional politicians only, which would not be a good thing. There is a balance to be struck."

The risk was that people would decide the level of exposure was "not worth the candle" and decide to give Parliament a miss to "earn more money elsewhere".

Mr Baker added: "It might have the long-term impact of making being an MP less attractive. People will say they're not being paid very much, and they are being criticised in public - so why bother?"

Dr Turner, a Labour MP, said the public reaction to the expenses scandal may have "put off some good candidates".

He said: "It certainly caused immense stress to a lot of people already in here who have done nothing wrong, and also to their families. It doesn't make [the job] any more attractive and it is possible you end up with people who are second rate.

"It is important to have transparency but I hope it becomes a little less intensive. Nobody else gets the same sort of attention we do."

The MPs, who both held a range of other jobs before being elected in 1997, said it would be regrettable if moves to clamp down on outside earnings, as well as allowances, led to Parliament being dominated by life-long careerist politicians.

Dr Turner, a former research scientist, teacher and local government worker, said: "One of the virtues of Parliament is that you get people coming in with a variety of life experiences which are relevant to real life.

"But Parliament is increasingly populated by young people who are professional politicians, having gone from school to university, a research job for an MP and then political office. They don't know anything else, and have never had to find their way in the real world."

Mr Baker said his experience as a regional director for a record company, teacher, British Rail station worker and environmental campaigner had provided him with "quite a useful set of skills".

He said: "I have been round the houses, and it's been quite useful to have business and public sector experience before I came in."

The Lib Dem, who has long campaigned for greater disclosure of expenses, said he had no problem with MPs having outside jobs - as long as there was "absolute transparency" so members of the public could "decide whether they are happy with their MP doing what they do".

He cautioned that it was also important that MPs aspiring to join the government did not hold any positions which presented a "conflict of interest" with their Parliamentary responsibilities.

He said: "We have got to have absolute transparency, and rules of probity that the public respect."

Dr Turner said some MPs with second jobs had "pushed it too far", adding: "One wonders how they manage to fit in any time for Parliament or their constituents."

But he added: "Some second jobs are not unreasonable when we know of people earning several times their Parliamentary salary. I don't think it does any harm to Parliament."

Dr Turner asked: "What do people come into Parliament for? We all say, and most of us mean it, that we do it because we want to make a difference for the better, not for personal gain.

"One would like to be reasonably rewarded for the effort. If you get people coming into Parliament looking at it for a way of making money those are people you don't want in Parliament.

"But you do want people of ability. It's not a lot of help having somebody who is of utmost virtue but of limited ability and so not much good. We want to have a situation where we attract people of highest calibre but whose intentions are entirely honourable."

The Labour MP predicted that despite the growing pressure on politicians to justify their behaviour - and curb their excesses - the House of Commons would not struggle to find people wanting to become members.

He said: "Despite all of this you will get people wanting to be an MP, and fighting over it. Some say you have to be off your head to want to be an MP, but people still want to do it, and people will still want to do it."

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