LONDON - THE scandal over British MPs' expenses is fuelling calls for early elections, a poll indicated on Saturday, as a 'whistleblower' behind the revelations said he was proud of his role.
The opinion poll, showing two thirds of Britons want elections this year rather than next, adds to pressure on embattled Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he grapples with renewed economic bad news.
EARLY POLLS POSSIBLE
Saturday's Telegraph carried the first interview with John Wick, a former special forces officer who acted as middleman - or 'whistleblower' as it called him - between the anonymous source of the documents and the newspaper.
'I feel proud to have played my part in what the Telegraph rightly describes as 'a very British revolution,' Mr Wick, a Conservative supporter, told the paper.
In the latest revelations on lawmakers' expenses, including claims ranging from tennis court repairs to a 'duck island", one was found to have spent thousands of pounds on security gates.
Opposition Conservative business spokesman Jonathan Djanogly will have to pay back 25,000 pounds (S$57,295) out of over 77,000 pounds reportedly spent at his property, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Mr Djanogly had automatic security gates installed at his house in Huntingdon, eastern England, at a cost of nearly 5,000 pounds, said the paper.
In the last two weeks, the Telegraph has published expense claims, paid for from the public purse, of over 200 of Britain's 646 lawmakers, prompting a furious reaction from the public as the country battles recession.
Official data showed on Friday that the economy was contracting at its sharpest pace in almost three decades.
The most high-profile casualty was House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin, who said this week he would quit, while several other MPs will not now stand at the next general election.
The latest scalp was Conservative Andrew MacKay who said on Saturday he would not stand again after he and his wife - also a Tory MP - both claimed allowances for a house they shared, effectively double-charging the taxpayer.
Mr MacKay was heckled by angry constituents at a meeting on Friday night, television footage showed, but he denied this was behind his decision. 'I believe I could be a distraction at a time when (Tory leader David Cameron) is working to get elected as prime minister,' said Mr MacKay, an ex Cameron advisor. -- AFP
