Brown urges MPs to pay expense claims

LONDON, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says members of Parliament accused of claiming too many personal expenses should pay up promptly.

Making his most forceful statement on the expenses scandal so far, Brown told Britain's GMTV Monday that MPs should drop complaints of unfair treatment by independent auditor Thomas Legg and pay back the dubious expense claims, then concentrate on establishing a more transparent reimbursement system, The Times of London reported.

"Sir Thomas Legg will make recommendations, people have a chance to look at what he says, then my advice to people is, if after the process has gone through in the next few weeks he says you have got to repay, let's get it done, let's get it sorted out, and let's get it back to a system that people can make sure they have confidence in," Brown said.

He added: "We have got to clean up politics, we have got to consign the old discredited system to the dustbin of history, so this part of the process of doing so."

The Times said Legg was set Monday to send letters to all MPs telling them how much he calculates they owe in unwarranted expense claims.