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| Harman seeks MP 'pay back' scheme | Harman seeks MP 'pay back' scheme |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| Commons leader Harriet Harman is calling for a system to be set up for MPs to pay back "excessive" expenses. | Commons leader Harriet Harman is calling for a system to be set up for MPs to pay back "excessive" expenses. |
| She has written to the cross-party committee on MPs' allowances calling for it to find out which claims broke rules and to set up a repayment scheme. | |
| She also called for a "moratorium" on current expenses claims until the system is sorted out. | |
| It comes as three Conservative MPs agreed to pay back swimming pool-related claims. | |
| Her statement to BBC news came shortly before Conservative leader David Cameron was set to announce he wants all shadow cabinet ministers to repay any questionable expenses. | |
| Ms Harman told the BBC News Channel she had asked the committee, which meets at 1830 BST, to take action on all MPs, ahead of systematic changes in the system planned for later in the year. | |
| She said she had asked the committee to consider setting up a "process" to "establish if money has been paid out wrongfully and to arrange for a repayment system". | |
| Asked how it could be established that MPs' expenses were "excessive," she said: "There are a set of rules and we want to be sure that if money has been paid out outwith those rules then it's paid back." | |
| She said it was "important not only for public confidence that money shouldn't be paid out outside the rules and not be paid back but it's important for the confidence of the whole house of Commons". |