MPs' expenses row rumbles on
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/7984046.stm Version 0 of 1. Are our MPs worth it? This is the question posed by one of the Sunday broadsheets about a story which will not go away - parliamentary expenses. A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times showed more than 80% of voters believe the system is in need of urgent reform. The News of the World says Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland's first minister, and his wife Iris, an MP and local councillor, are the best paid back-benchers. They receive £571,000 in salaries and expenses a year, claims the paper. Expenses heat The Sunday Express keeps up the heat on Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. Ms Smith, already under fire for claiming adult films on expenses, is reported to have billed taxpayers £304 for a BBQ, garden patio set and heater. David Cameron has told the Mail on Sunday he would give up more than £100,000 in Commons expenses payable on a second home if he was prime minister. He also intends to ban his front bench team, eligible for grace-and-favour homes, from claiming the allowance. Eye witnesses There is much reflection on the G20 and Nato summits in the broadsheets. The Independent on Sunday says the Nato decision to send 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan was more "so far so good" rather than a leap for world peace. The Observer says witnesses at the G20 protests in London claim the man who died from a heart attack had been assaulted by riot police. Photos show officers, with batons and shields, approaching 47-year-old Ian Tomlinson who is lying on the pavement. 'Hands off' Many papers covered the funeral of Jade Goody, with the People saying the nation paid its respects. It reveals the message her children had sent: "Mummy please speak to God and ask him to make the clouds go away because we can't see the stars". The Sunday Mirror has spoken to the man who claims to be the father of Mercy James, the three-year-old girl who Madonna wants to adopt in Malawi. He is quoted as telling her: "Hands off my girl... I want to raise her." |