
Andrew MacKay will stand down at the next general election
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Commons reform reduces MP Andrew MacKay's leaving payout
November 05, 2009
Shamed MP Andrew MacKay will only get a payout of eight weeks’ pay when he stands down from his post after a Commons reform banned huge ‘golden handshakes’.
Bracknell MP Andrew MacKay could have been in line for a ‘resettlement grant’ of up to £65,000 when he stands down at the next election after his part in the expenses scandal.
But under senior civil servant Sir Christopher Kelly’s sweeping reform of the Commons, announced yesterday, he will get just eight weeks’ pay – about £10,000.
But this is still too much for the liking of the leader of Bracknell protest group Goodbye MacKay, who says the MP should not get a penny.
Mr MacKay is relinquishing his job at the next election, at the latest next May, after a leaked list revealed he had been claiming expenses for a second home on a house his wife, fellow Tory MP Julie Kirkbride, declared as her main home.
Mr MacKay declined to comment on Sir Christopher Kelly’s reforms, saying: “It’s a matter for the next Parliament and since I won’t be a part of that I don’t think it right that I comment.”
But Bracknell protest group Goodbye MacKay wants to see further sanctions against the Tory.
Group leader Dan Haycocks said: “This is a step in the right direction but we think until he pays back all the money he wrongly claimed, he shouldn’t get another penny of the public’s money.”
All the MPs involved have been told how much money they are expected to pay back following the expenses scandal that rocked Parliament earlier this year.
As yet Mr MacKay has not revealed whether he has been asked to pay any money back.
- A further part of Sir Christopher Kelly’s reforms will mean that from the start of the next Parliament, following the General Election, MPs with constituencies within reasonable commuting distance of London will not be able to claim expenses for a second home.

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10/02/2010 at 00:56 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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I'd love a reality TV show where MP's are given normal jobs, normal wages, and normal accomodation for a few months... I wonder how they'd cope...
12/11/2009 at 12:11 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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The Kelly Report recommendations (if accepted) will not be implemented immediately so those disgraced MPs (like Mackay and his wife) who have been deselected for next year's general election *will* get the full golden handshake, and their full salaries and expenses until the election, and then a handsome pension... and they say that crime doesn't pay.
It's ironic that the worst offenders amongst the MPs will be the ones that suffer least. Those that are around in 5 years time will be the ones that have restricted opportunities to dip their snouts in the trough.
05/11/2009 at 17:22 Offensive or Inappropriate?
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