Thaindian News

London, May 22 (IANS) A British MP says days of naming and shaming fellow-lawmakers for claiming dubious parliamentary allowances have begun to resemble a witchhunt that could end in a suicide.
“The atmosphere in Westminster is unbearable,” Nadine Dorries wrote on her website.

“People are constantly checking to see if others are ok. Everyone fears a suicide. If someone isn’t seen, offices are called and checked.”

Dozens of MPs from Britain’s lower house of parliament have been named by the Daily Telegraph newspaper in daily reports for claiming allowances that have been criticised as unacceptable and immoral.

A minister, Shahid Malik, resigned after the paper revealed he claimed interest on a homeloan 18 months after he had paid back the mortgage.

Others have claimed tax payers’ money for a variety of ‘expenses’, including employing domestic help, buying chandeliers and a home theatre system, cleaning a moat, and reparing swimming pools and a tennis court.

Nadine Dorries also told BBC Radio that MPs are “seriously beginning to crack” a fortnight after the Daily Telegraph began publishing its reports, based on audited parliamentary accounts that have been leaked to the paper.

“I have never been in an atmosphere or environment like it, when people walk around with terror in their eyes and people are genuinely concerned, asking, ‘Have you seen so and so? Are they in their office? They’ve not been seen for days.’

“There’s a really serious concern that this has got to a point now which is almost unbearable for any human being to deal with,” she said.