Commenting on the headlines this week over MPs' expense claims for second homes, renovation projects - and moat drainage, Tom Flanagan, employment partner at Pinsent Masons, said: "Directors have a fiduciary duty, over and above any contractual obligations. MPs have a code of conduct, as holders of public office, which governs the principles of their actions and requires them at all times to act in the public interest first and not to gain any financial or material benefit from their office.
"MPs have been criticised for hiding behind the rules over their alleged expenses, claiming they have acted within the ‘spirit and letter' of the rules. This response ignores their overriding duties. If a number of the alleged expenses claims are correct, it is glaringly obvious that, whatever may be in particular rules, some MPs' actions fall well short of their overriding duties.
According to Flanagan, the issue is not about rules it is about behaviour and standards. He claims if some of the behaviour alleged against MPs were committed by company directors, they would very likely face disciplinary sanctions up to summary dismissal, claims to repay the expenses and any profit made out of them and possible criminal sanctions. "Should not the nation's MPs owe similar standards to their ‘company' and its ‘shareholders'" he asked rhetorically.
The claims some MPs have made defy belief. Here are just some examples that have been in the national press this week:
Hazel Blears, communities secretary: £5,000 for furniture
Andy Burnham, culture secretary: £16,500 to buy and renovate a London flat
John Prescott, former deputy prime minister: £312 for mock tudor beams for his ceiling and £112.52 for plumbing work that incorporated the refit of his toilet seat
Alistair Darling, chancellor of the exchequer: £10,000 to refurbish his London home
Margaret Beckett, former foreign secretary: attempted to claim £600 for pot plants and hanging baskets
Phil Woolas, immigration minister: attempted to claim for nappies and women's clothes
Kevin Brennan, junior minister: £450 for a wide screen television
Stephen Byers, former trade secretary: £125,000 towards his partner's flat
Cheryl Gillan, shadow Welsh secretary: £4.47 for dog food and £305.50 to solve ‘noise problems' with her boiler
David Willis, shadow universities secretary: £100 to replace 25 light bulbs in his home
Sir Michael Spicer, chairman of 1922 Committee: £620 to install a chandelier
David Heathcoat-Amory, backbencher: £380 for horse manure
Douglas Hogg, former cabinet minister: £200 to ‘clear his moat'
George Osborne, shadow chancellor: £440.62 for his chauffeur service
Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman: £119 for a trouser press
Let us know what you think of the MP's expenses and, as an HR professional, tell us about some of the strangest expense claims you have been asked to sign off on our forum.
MPs' expenses scandal is not about rules it is about behaviour and standards
If MPs were company directors they would have been fired over expense claims, according to a legal expert, despite reports this morning that more than 20 ministers have promised to pay back 100,000 plus.
