In response to a letter about MPs' expenses in a previous edition of the West Sussex County Times our parliamentary candidate, Andrew Skudder wrote this letter, which was printed in today's edition of the same paper.Peter Hillman (letters May 8), is absolutely right that it is very easy for me to say that I would not abuse parliamentary expenses, but at least he does not doubt my sincerity.
If Horsham were to somehow provide the next election's 'Portillo moment' there is no part of that promise I would regret having made.
If there is any doubt about that I can point at my time as a councillor when, in four years, I claimed for some childminding if evening meetings clashed with my wife's shift work at the time, and had one single expense claim for a train journey, despite regularly representing the council at meetings of the LGA in London and travelling to a summer school in York at my own expense.
It is part of the democratic process that all candidates can state what they believe in and what they would do if elected, and manipulating the expenses system and treating parliament as a part-time job happen to be things that I feel strongly about, to the extent that when I met one of the few MPs in my party who have an additional job I made myself very unpopular by sharing my views with him.
As to why I was selected over the candidates from within the constituency, that is really a question for the constituency members, although that is a question that could equally be asked of the Tories isn't it?
Andrew Skudder
Labour Party prospective parliamentary candidate for Horsham
