ABOUT FLIPPIN TIME; Brown pledges to rid Commons of corruption with laws to bang up crooked MPs.

Byline: JASON BEATTIE

IT has been stained by the ugly filth of corruption, but Gordon Brown last night launched the great clean-up of Parliament.

The PM announced a string of radical measures to stop the Commons ever again sinking into the mire of shame brought about by the expenses scandal.

MPs breaking the new rules by fiddling their claims or asking questions for cash could be jailed for up to a year or face massive fines.

Mr Brown also pledged to ban the practice of "flipping" between two homes in order to maximise allowances.

A special Parliamentary police officer will be hired to monitor any abuses.

Mr Brown said: "There are indeed criminal offences in this Bill.

"So that if an MP misleads deliberately or if an MP does something like, without reasonable excuse, fails to register a relevant interest, that is a criminal offence and that would then be investigated by the police.

"We are determined to do everything in our power to clean this up and I am not going to rest until we have this got this legislation through.

"This reform is the biggest you have ever seen in Parliament.

"I am determined that it is cleaned up in such a way that we can say to the people of this country: 'We listened, we heard, we knew something was wrong, we have now dealt with it'."

Mr Brown also announced that the cosy arrangement whereby the Commons sets its own expenses and allowances will be consigned to history.

He added: "The mistake of the past was simply to leave everything to the Commons to do it on an all-party agreement basis so that you got to lowest common denominator. That has proven to be wrong. It wasn't acceptable."

The legislation will create three new criminal offences - knowingly making a false expenses claim, failing to declare a relevant interest and breaking the rules on paid advocacy - asking questions for cash. A new independent Parliamentary Standards Authority will have the power to boot out corrupt MPs, make them repay dodgy cash and stop their wages.

Commons leader Harriet Harman said the Bill also sets out a new code of conduct for MPs. She promised to look again at the censoring of MPs' expenses and said she wanted "maximum transparency". Liberal Democrat Norman Baker, who has campaigned to clean up Parliament, welcomed the reform package.

He said: "I think it was pretty reasonable and we are moving finally out of the 19th century era of regulation to something transparent and accountable.

"It is a sound step on the road to reform.

It is not the whole picture. There is more to be done... more freedom of information, more House of Lords reform. On expenses, the idea of an external body is right."

But the Tories branded the plan "unworkable" and threatened to scupper the change by voting it down.

As part of the crackdown, Mr Brown also pledged to carry out an independent audit of all MPs' expenses claims for the past four years.

And he vowed to close the loophole that allows MPs to dodge capital gains tax.

The PM wants the Parliamentary Standards Authority Bill, which the Government is publishing today, on the statute book by the time MPs break for the summer recess next month.

Voters were disgusted by the recent expenses scandal, where reports of MPs' making dodgy claims flooded out daily.

Two Labour MPs and one Labour peer are already facing a police investigation over their use of expenses.

Commons Speaker Michael Martin quit his post over his handling of the affair.

And Labour took a battering at the Euro and local elections as voters expressed their anger at the scandal.

Voice of the Mirror: Page 8

OFFENCE 1:

To knowingly make a false expenses claim

OFFENCE 2:

Not declaring any 'relevant interests'

OFFENCE 3:

Paid advocacy -the 'cash for questions' issue

CAPTION(S):

WATCH OUT PM is changing the laws CODE Commons leader Harman