Expenses Controversy
In May 2009, Gibson became embroiled in the MPs' expenses scandal detailed by The Daily Telegraph, who reported that he claimed for a flat in which his daughter lived rent-free before selling it to her for half its market value. Subsequently, he was barred from standing in the next general election by a disciplinary panel of the Labour Party.
Believing that after the panel's decision his position was "untenable", he resigned as an MP (by the traditional procedural device of becoming Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham), thereby forcing a by-election. The resultant byelection was won by Chloe Smith, the Conservative Party candidate, with a majority of 7,348 (reversing a previous Labour majority of 5,459).
Read more about this topic: Ian Gibson (politician)
Famous quotes containing the words expenses and/or controversy:
“Good government cannot be found on the bargain-counter. We have seen samples of bargain-counter government in the past when low tax rates were secured by increasing the bonded debt for current expenses or refusing to keep our institutions up to the standard in repairs, extensions, equipment, and accommodations. I refuse, and the Republican Party refuses, to endorse that method of sham and shoddy economy.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)