Expensive mistake

I’m tired and it’s late but it’d be wrong to leave without saying what an absolute cock-up the whole expenses thing has been.

Either the Government has handled it totally incompetently or they’ve been played out of the park by the Tories.

For those who missed it, Harriet Harman wanted to make MPs’ expenses exempt from FOI requests.

The vote was going to be whipped by Brown meaning Labour MPs would’ve been forced to pass it.

The PM even made comments in the chamber today saying opposition parties had originally supported the move, but withdrew backing at the last minute, meaning the whip was needed.

An hour later in confusion Harman announced the FOI exemption would be dropped.

One Labour MP I spoke to said he’d warned the leadership that discussing the issue with the Tories was dangerous.

He suggested that the Conservatives had supported the Government in bringing forward controversial proposals, only so that they could pull out – and accuse Labour of trying to conceal expenses.

Whatever happened, ministers are suffocating because of the amount of egg on their faces.