She stood down as a Member of Parliament before the 2010 general election, as a result of public anger over her expenses claims. In October 2010, after she had stood down, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards cleared her of any wrongdoing and dismissed the complaints against her. [4]
Expenses claims
On 14 May 2009, her husband Andrew MacKay, the Conservative Member for Bracknell, resigned from his position as parliamentary aide to David Cameron, in the wake of the furore over Parliamentary expenses after what was described as an "unacceptable" expenses claim. [5]
MacKay and Kirkbride owned two homes: one in her constituency of Bromsgrove; and a house close to Parliament in Westminster. In a case of so-called double-dipping, according to The Daily Telegraph , Mackay had used his Additional Costs Allowance to claim more than £1,000 a month in mortgage interest payments on their joint Westminster house – even though he did not have a residence in his Bracknell constituency – while Kirkbride used her Additional Costs Allowance to claim over £900 a month to pay the mortgage for their family home in her constituency. "This means," reports The Daily Telegraph, "they effectively had no main home but two second homes – and were using public funds to pay for both of them". [6] During 2008–9, MacKay claimed a total of £23,083 under Additional Costs Allowance, while Kirkbride claimed £22,575. They also claimed for each other's travel costs, with Kirkbride claiming £1,392 to meet spouse travel, while MacKay claimed £408. [6] [7]
Julie Kirkbride employed her sister at taxpayers' expense as her secretary despite her sister living 140 miles from the constituency. Kirkbride also extended her mortgage to pay for a £50,000 extension to her house, which she said was to provide a separate bedroom for her son, and claimed for this on expenses. [8] [9] She said she allowed her brother to stay rent free in her house some of the time so that he could care for her son, Angus, while she undertook constituency work in the evening. Kirkbride also suggested that criticism of her expense claims could deter women from entering Parliament. [9]
On 28 May 2009, Kirkbride cancelled a meeting in her Bromsgrove constituency to discuss the expense claims, [10] and it was announced that owing to press criticism of her expense claims, she intended to stand down at the next election. [11] In a letter to Cameron, she said, "My principal concern has to be for my very loyal local supporters in Bromsgrove whose trust in me has been very humbling in the last few weeks ... I also must take into account the effects on my family." [8] A petition in the Bromsgrove constituency demanding Kirkbride's resignation had attracted over 5,000 signatures. [12] Kirkbride also lost the trust of party activists: the results of a poll on the ConservativeHome website showed that 81% of those responding (a self-selecting sample) thought Kirkbride should go and only 6% that she should remain as a Conservative MP. Shortly before her decision to stand down, she had stated that it never crossed her mind that she was doing anything wrong; however, she was also quoted as saying that it was "hugely upsetting to realise I have let people down". [13]
On 5 November, she reversed her decision, telling a meeting of the Executive Council of Bromsgrove Conservative Association that she wanted to be considered as their candidate for the next general election. [14] On 18 December she announced she would indeed stand down, in a Christmas and New Year message on her website saying "this is entirely my decision". [15] [16]
The Legg review of MPs expenses declared that Kirkbride had to pay back £29,243, the fifth highest total of all MPs. Kirkbride's husband Andrew MacKay had to pay back £31,193, ranking third. Both MPs had paid back the amount in full by the time of the release of the report on 4 February 2010. [17] Kirkbride was one of 98 MPs who voted in favour of legislation which would have kept MPs' expense details secret. [18]
In October 2010, the Parliamentary Commissioner of Standards rejected complaints of her expenses and upheld that she had been within the rules to claim her Bromsgrove property as a second home, to allow her brother to stay to look after her child and to extend her mortgage to provide a further bedroom. On the issue of the second home he wrote: "I have concluded that Mr MacKay was wrong to designate the Bromsgrove property as his main home. Given that, it would be unreasonable to hold that Ms Kirkbride could not make legitimate claims from parliamentary resources for the home in her constituency which she had identified as her second home".
On the issue of the extended mortgage he wrote: "I conclude, therefore, that Ms Kirkbride was within the rules in claiming interest on the additional mortgage which she, with her husband, took out in April 2008 to extend her Bromsgrove constituency property by building a third bedroom for it so that she had somewhere for her child carer to stay while she was busy on her parliamentary duties".
On the issue of her brother, the Commissioner concluded: "I consider that it would be an unduly harsh interpretation of the rules to require a member to meet the living costs of having a person stay overnight in their home when that person was there to look after their dependant child so that they could perform their parliamentary duties. Ms Kirkbride's son was at an age when it was essential that someone should be with him in the evening and overnight. The arrangement enabled Ms Kirkbride to continue with her constituency duties as a Member of Parliament" [19]
