Alas, if the Prime Minister gets his way this is not likely to be the case.

Desperate to suppress a back bench rebellion that is mounting in the run up to next month’s report by Sir Christopher Kelly, Gordon Brown is frantically working with his aides to hatch his latest plan.

The Kelly report is expected to make a dramatic overhaul of the expenses system and so the PM is working tirelessly to gain support for a self regulated system to be put in place that would include the following:

Increasing the basic salary of all MP’s by circa £3,000 from £64,766 to £67,766 whilst forcing a reduction (average £20,000) from Government salaries which are earned on top of the basic salary and range between £96,000 / £197,000. Downing St believes that the general public will accept this ‘reform’ in principle as the aim is that the overall cost to the taxpayer will not rise from £12.3m for ministerial wages.

The Kelly report will, among other things prevent MP’s from employing family members in any capacity. It will also make the recommendation that MP’s rent their second home as oppossed to purchasing at taxpayers expense thereby removing the temptation for an MP to ‘flip’ between their homes for financial gain.

It is unlikely that many backbenchers will accept the recommendations whilst Gordon Brown is likely to struggle to suppress his many rebels who are quietly massing on the fringe as though in a scene direct from the Roman Senate after the constitutional reforms of the Emperor Diocletian. Clearly they will not go quietly with his ‘new package’.

The Prime Minister is simply playing catch-up to David Cameron who has pledged a smaller Cabinet within a smaller Government. David Cameron has the makings of a full package of proposals whilst Gordon Brown has a solution more akin to a patchwork quilt.

Imagine if you will both Gordon and David both sifting through the fancy dress box and Cameron emerging with a full Zorro suit whilst Gordon has the remnants of outfits of the Joker, the Riddler and Bozo The Clown.

It is not though the PLP or the House of Commons that Gordon Brown needs to convince it is the most powerful person in the country and that is the voter in the street a large proportion of whom come from the Public Sector who’ve just been forced to take a pay freeze.