The BBC’s political editor, Nick Robinson, has hit back against an early day motion “deploring” his blog about House of Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, and MPs over the parliamentary expenses row. Robinson today posted a response to the EDM, posted by former Labour minister Peter Kilfoyle, which attacked his suggestion that some MPs are too afraid to condemn Martin because he might use his position to punish those who did. The motion, which has already attracted the support of 52 MPs, with others likely to add their names, said it “deplores the innuendo of the blog of Nick Robinson, the BBC’s lobby correspondent, and calls upon him to substantiate the imputation he makes in his blog concerning the speaker and members”. In today’s blog Robinson also posits various “theories” about what lies behind the anger of Kilfoyle and the other MPs, including the suggestion that “MPs loathe the intrusion into their private lives that’s resulted from increased transparency” from legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act. In yesterday’s blog, Robinson suggested that some MPs had rallied behind the speaker because he “acts as shop steward for MPs and many fear that the media will come for them next”. The row comes amid mounting criticism of MPs’ expenses, which has led to the withdrawal of the Conservative whip from Derek Conway and calls for the resignation of Martin, after his press spokesman Mike Granatt quit at the weekend, claiming he had been misled about taxi expenses incurred by the speaker’s wife. read more

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