Labour MP makes 'stand down' offer
A Labour MP has said he is ready to stand down if his constituents demand it, after it was revealed he claimed £80,000 in taxpayers' money for a flat where his daughter lived with her partner.
Norwich North MP Ian Gibson said that the west London property was his second home, as he spent three nights a week there, but confirmed that his daughter Helen was living there permanently rent-free.
The arrangement was revealed by the Daily Telegraph as MPs returned to their constituencies to face the wrath of voters during the week-long parliamentary recess.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has ordered his MPs to go out and talk to voters on the doorstep and in town hall meetings.
There was no sign that public anger is abating on a special edition of BBC1's Question Time on Thursday night, which saw audience members calling for prosecutions and an immediate election and giving their backing to non-political figures like Esther Rantzen or Joanna Lumley rather than the mainstream parties.
The Telegraph reported that Dr Gibson published his expenses on his website earlier this week, but blacked out key details.
And it revealed he sold his London flat to his daughter and her partner William Turner in April this year for £162,000 - less than he bought it for in 1999 and well below the current market rate.
Dr Gibson - an independent-minded left-winger who has long been a thorn in the side of the Government - insisted he had not broken the rules as the flat was genuinely his second home, but admitted it could look "unfair" to voters, who might now want him out.
He told the BBC: "I don't mind being beaten in an election, which is a possibility. I'm quite happy to step down too if the constituents find it one step too far."
Details of the claims emerged shortly after Ben Chapman of Wirral South became the first Labour MP to announce that he will stand down at the next election, following allegations that he overclaimed £15,000 in expenses for mortgage interest.
