Politicians fiddled their expenses because they were bored by increasingly 'irrelevant' Parliament, says John Bercow Speaker blamed the scandal on Westminster being 'less meaningful' He said politicians were not greedy they were simply "imaginative" Claimed Parliament's role as an 'effective legislature' has been in decline for decades Claims: The Commons speaker said the scandal was a result of Westminster becoming less 'meaningful' Politicians fiddled their expenses as "displacement activity" because they were bored by their increasingly "irrelevant" parliament, Commons Speaker John Bercow has claimed. He blamed the expenses scandal - which so far has led to the jailing of four MPs and two Lords - on Westminster becoming less "meaningful" rather than on collective "malice or corruption." In a speech in London, Mr Bercow played down the greed of politicians, suggesting they were simply being "imaginative." "The blunt truth is that the expenses debacle was a particularly embarrassing layer of icing on an especially unappetising cake," he told the Hansard Society political charity. The reality in 2009 is that the House of Commons as a meaningful political institution, an effective legislature, had been in decline for some decades. He added: "The House appeared to be little more than a cross between a rubber stamp and a talking shop which had taken to collective activity such as the imaginative interpretation of what might be a legitimate expense claim as much as an odd form of displacement activity as out of any shared sense of malice or corruption." But last night anti-sleaze campaigner Sir Alistair Graham, former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, said Mr Bercow had "got it totally wrong." He said: "The expenses scandal looked to me like a deliberate attempt by MPs to overcome their grievances over their salaries by boosting their expenses. They had been given quite improper nods and winks by former prime ministers who hinted that while it might not be politically possible to increase their pay, it was legitimate to maximise how much they claimed in expenses. This created a very disturbing culture which is nothing to do with boredom but a way to bump up their pay. Senior Conservative MP Rob Wilson for Reading East, who has described Mr Bercow as "divisive and self-important," said his comments showed he was out of touch. Anti-sleaze: Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, said Mr Bercow had 'got it totally wrong' The expenses scandal had nothing to do with displacement activity and more to do with the fact that Parliament was not open and transparent enough to the public. He added: "The Speaker must have become very detached from the majority of MPs if he thinks they had time to become so bored they were engaged in "displacement" activity," said Mr Wilson, a ministerial aide to Chancellor George Osborne. Mr Bercow suggested his own reforms to give backbenchers more powers had resulted in a "Westminster Spring" - a reference to the pro-democracy revolution taking place in the Middle East which has had mixed results. He credited his own reforms for giving life to the "virtual corpse" that Parliament had become, suggesting moves such as more family-friendly hours and allowing MPs to quiz ministers at short notice were more important changes than the coalition or the new influx of MPs. Changes: Mr Bercow also suggested reforms to give backbenchers more power Far from being in the final twitches of our mortal life, the virtual corpse has staged an unexpected recovery. He added: "It strikes me that three factors best explain the resuscitation of the House of Commons over these past three years. They are: procedural change; fresh blood; and the novelty of coalition government. The first of these is probably, on balance, the most important. Mr Bercow also called for Britain to adopt internet voting for elections, saying that there needed to be "potentially anarchic" change. He announced the creation of a "Speaker's Commission on "digital democracy" which would put politicians together with tech companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple. Experts would be asked to "apply their disruptive minds to how technology can enhance democracy" and work with him through a Speaker's Commission on Digital Democracy. Like the digital world itself it will be unpredictable, potentially anarchic. It should even be quite fun," Mr Bercow said. It will be seen outside of Zone One of the London Underground network. It will crave for international examples such as Estonia," he said. The east European country adopted internet voting for general elections in 2005. But its voter turn out - at 47 per cent - is still lower than Britain's. Its e-voting system is also tied to a compulsory national identity card - a policy that was killed off by the Coalition.