LONDON — Four leading members of the watchdog scrutinising MPs' expenses are to quit in protest at alleged interference by House of Commons Speaker John Bercow, it was reported on Wednesday.
Ian Kennedy, chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), said the speaker's demand that a former MP be handed a key role in selecting its board members exposed it to "political influence".
Scott Baker, Jackie Ballard, Ken Olisa and Isobel Sharp will leave when their current contracts expire in January due to the row. Bercow has insisted they would have to reapply for their posts.
In a series of letters, which were sent over the summer and published in the press on Wednesday, Kennedy clashed with Bercow over his insistence that a full selection process had to be carried out.
The chair added that the presence on the selection panel of former Tory MP Peter Atkinson would "inevitably introduce a perception of party politics".
"This would be wholly undesirable given the need for IPSA to be and be seen to be independent of political influence," he wrote.
Labour MP John Mann called it "the speaker's revenge for the unpopularity of Ipsa among MPs."
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