How many dodgy Parliamentarians?: A breakdown, across the five main Parties at this election

The MPs' expenses scandal has rocked the foundations of the political establishment at Westminster and shed light on further expenses claims made by MEPs at Brussels.  

We in the Green Party here in Eastern Region have made a Clean Campaign Pledge ( http://www.clean-campaign-pledge.net/ ) because we are angry at the extent of the corruption exposed by the Daily Telegraph, and one of our main aims in this election campaign and the next general election is to clean up politics.  But we don't just talk the talk - we walk the walk.  Using figures obtained by the Telegraph, we have calculated the percentage of Westminster MPs from the three main parties who have claimed or tried to claim unnecessary, extravagant or downright dishonest expenses for such items as duck islands, trouser presses and rent or mortgage payments for 'flipped' second homes:

Labour MPs - 134/350 = 38%
Conservatives MPs - 84/195 = 43%
Liberal Democrats MPs - 13/63 = 20%

Given that much of the media have played up the role of UKIP as the main beneficiaries of the expenses scandal, with voters who are rightly angry at their MPs seeking to punish them, we have also calculated the percentage of UKIP MEPs who have been convicted of fraud or apparently confessed to it, or who have claimed a staggering amount of expenses despite having very poor attendance records at the European Parliament and voting 'no' to all legislation regardless of the potential benefit to the UK.  Compare this to the percentage of Green MEPs who have abused the expenses system or been convicted of fraud:

UKIP MEPs - 3/12 = 25% [This is a very conservative estimate; a full Telegraph-style investigation of UKIP MEPs would be extremely useful...]
Green MEPs - 0/2 = 0%

The choice is clear.  Whilst all other parties fall over each other claiming to want to fix the broken system, the Green Party's record shows that we are the real choice for voters this Thursday who want to vote for cleaner politics.

Download and display our Vote Green For Clean Politics Poster!

Sources:

Labour MPs: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5349413/MPs-expenses-Full-list-of-Labour-MPs-investigated-by-the-Telegraph.html
Conservative MPs: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5349372/MPs-expenses-Full-list-of-Conservative-MPs-investigated-by-the-Telegraph.html
Liberal Democrat MPs: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5349464/MPs-expenses-Full-list-of-Liberal-Democrat-MPs-investigated-by-the-Telegraph.html
UKIP MEPs: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6975627.stm http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6136068.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/24/mps-expenses-ukip-nigel-farage