Sandy 4 St Albans

In the interest of full transparency I am pleased to confirm that I receive no expenses for any of my political activities. Unlike much of the literature sent out by Mrs Main, all of our local campaigning in the St Albans constituency is funded by contributions from individual members and supporters of the Liberal Democrats. Our leaflets are delivered by volunteers or we pay for our own postage. There is absolutely no cost to the taxpayer.

If I am elected as Member of Parliament for St Albans, I will commute to London from my own home paid for by myself as I did for all the many years that I worked there – even when my job involved early starts and late nights. It would be quite wrong for me to have a second home at taxpayer expense given the closeness of St Albans to London. That would have been my decision whether or not the current furore over expenses had happened.

Any other office expenses I might claim over and above the parliamentary salary will be declared by me transparently and in full. Voters and taxpayers deserve nothing less when public money is involved.

We have a long way to go to restore trust in the institution of Parliament – recent events have been a wake-up call that politicians must abide by the standards of all other employment.

This is a story which keeps on running – not least in St Albans. Here is the most up-to-date comment on my blog.