Former Labour MPs lose expenses ruling

Three former Labour MPs accused of fiddling their expenses have lost their final bid to avoid criminal trials.

David Chaytor, of Todmorden, ex-Scunthorpe MP Elliot Morley, and Jim Devine, of Bathgate, West Lothian, all deny theft by false accounting and took their cases to the highest court in the land, claiming any investigation into their expenses claims and the imposition of any sanctions "should lie within the hands of Parliament".

But the Supreme Court has ruled they are not protected by Parliamentary privilege and they will now face separate trials at London's Southwark Crown Court. The first, Mr Chaytor's, set to begin on December 6.

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Nine justices gave their decisions yesterday to avoid clashing with the criminal proceedings and will give their reasons for the ruling at a later date.

Nigel Pleming QC, representing Chaytor and Devine, told a hearing at the Supreme Court in October the parliamentary expenses scheme was part of proceedings in the House, so the men should be protected by parliamentary privilege.

He added: "I also wish to emphasise as firmly as I can on behalf of these former MPs that this is not, and never has been, an attempt to take them above or outside the law."

He said the House had "the power to punish, and to recover any monies wrongly claimed, and is well capable of investigating allegations, including allegations of dishonesty, made against its members".

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The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, heading a panel of three Court of Appeal judges, had earlier this year upheld a ruling by a judge sitting in central London that they were not protected by privilege.

Former Bury North MP Chaytor, 61, is accused of falsely claiming rent on a London flat he owned, falsely filing invoices for IT work and renting a property from his mother, against regulations; Morley, 58, of Winterton, north Lincolnshire, is accused of falsely claiming 30,000 in interest payments on a mortgage already paid off, while Devine, 57, formerly MP for Livingston, is said to have wrongly submitted two invoices worth 5,500, and to have dishonestly claimed cleaning and maintenance costs of 3,240.

The trio are all on unconditional bail.

They have claimed the criminal charges against them involve questioning or impugning proceedings in Parliament not because the statements and claims made by them are themselves proceedings but because they were made in the course of Parliamentary proceedings.

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