MEMBERS of Parliament who are standing down at the next election will learn next week whether they will lose up to £54,000 of their resettlement grant in a fresh crackdown on their allowances.

The Kelly inquiry, set up after the expenses scandal earlier this year, is expected to recommend a cap on the “golden goodbye” of two months’ salary – about £10,000.

That would be a cut on the present grant of between £32,383 and £64,766, depending on the age and length of service of the departing MP, with the first £30,000 tax free.

Sir Christopher Kelly’s Committee on Standards in Public Life could opt to delay the change until the election after next, but that would risk further public anger.

The report, published next Wednesday, is also expected to recommend:

● Axing the £10,400-a-year communications allowance, typically spent on leaflets for constituents;

● Ending the £25-a-day subsistence allowance for food, claimed when MPs are away from their main homes;

● Cutting back claims for first class rail travel between London and a constituency;

●A ban on employing relatives;

● A ban on taxpayer help to buy second homes, with MPs expected to rent instead;

● Ending taxpayer help to buy, or rent, second homes for MPs living within one hour’s rail journey of London.

Yesterday, in a move likely further to inflame MPs, it was revealed they will be denied a vote on whether to accept Sir Christopher’s report.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the Commons that the review’s findings would instead be handed to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) to implement.

A No10 spokesman pointed out that the Parliamentary Standards Act required IPSA “to consult MPs when drawing up the expenses regime, but not to seek their final approval”.

But Middlesbrough MP Sir Stuart Bell signalled a fight still lay ahead.

Sir Stuart sits on the Members Estimate Committee, which deals with allowances.

Yesterday, he described any ban on second home allowances for MPs within commuting distance as “totally unacceptable” and stressed the need to phase in a ban on employing family members over several years.

■ Voters in Gosport, Hampshire, are to be given the chance to choose who will fight the seat for the Tories at the next election.

The move follows the decision by MP Peter Viggers, who claimed taxpayer-funded expenses for a floating duckhouse, to step down after more than 30 years.

Postal ballots will be sent to all eligible residents offering them a say in who from a shortlist should fight the safe seat and the candidates will answer questions at a hustings on December 2.