Protests grow over MP expense bid

By Julian Joyce BBC News

Harriet Harman says expense claims need to be dealt with "affordably"

Campaigners have called on MPs to "stand up and be counted" against a potential rule change exempting them from Freedom of Information laws.

MPs are due to vote this week on the new rules, which would allow them to keep their expense details secret.

Now opponents have launched an online campaign, urging voters to put pressure on their local MPs to oppose the move.

By Monday afternoon an estimated 1,000 e-mails had been sent and organisers are confident the total will grow.

The e-mails were in response to an appeal earlier in the day from mySociety.org - a website with 75,000 subscribers that campaigns for more openness in politics.

In 2007 the group played a role in defeating a similar move by MPs to exempt themselves from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

The politicians must realise that by behaving so cynically, they will cause great damage to the reputation of Parliament Unlock Democracy director Paul Facey

The group says widespread opposition to the plans might convince MPs to vote against them.

MySociety director Tom Steinberg told the BBC: "We are a strictly non-partisan group, but we are using the internet... to spread the word that this exemption is unacceptable."

The rule change has been proposed by the Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman.

Her parliamentary order, which MPs will debate on Thursday, aims to remove "most expenditure information held by either House of Parliament from the scope of the [Freedom of Information] Act".

It means under the law, journalists and members of the public would no longer be entitled to learn details of an MP's expenses.

New bed

Last week Miss Harman said information about expense claims needed to be given in an "affordable and proportionate" way in future.

Instead, she is proposing that MPs list their expense claims under 26 general headings, with no specific detail about what has been purchased.

The proposed rule change would destroy years of campaigning by journalists and others to force MPs to disclose detailed expenses.

It would also overturn a High Court ruling last year that would have resulted in all MPs being required to publish a breakdown of their expense claims on request.

Following the ruling, it was revealed that former Prime Minister Tony Blair had claimed