MP expenses scandal: it's time for tax avoiders to cough up too

Named and shamed, MPs are queueing up to repay their ill-gotten gains. Junior Minister Phil Hope has just announced he’ll be paying back a whopping £42,000. Whether it’s the threat of deselection that’s doing the trick, the public humiliation, or just that they’re starting to come to their senses, it’s the right thing to do and I applaud it.

(Sure, there are exceptions: I’ve asked my local MP, Rudi Vis, if he’ll be returning the £40,000 he’s claimed in the last two years after moving his “principle residence” to Suffolk - he’s the MP for Finchley - but I’ve had no reply.)

But the thing is that many MPs have been coerced by public opinion.

So why hasn’t the same thing happened to all those company directors whose utterly cynical tax avoidance shenanigans are depriving our public services of billions of pounds each year?