Taxpayer to foot bill for Labour MPs in expenses claim trial

TAXPAYERS will have to foot the legal bills of three Labour MPs, including Scunthorpe's Elliot Morley, accused of fiddling their expenses after they won their bid for legal aid.

Court officials have confirmed Mr Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine will have their legal costs funded when they go on trial later this year accused of theft by false accounting.

The decision has led to an outcry from campaigners and opposition MPs, with Conservative leader David Cameron yesterday voicing his "complete outrage".

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The trio are accused of stealing a total of almost 60,000 in

allowances through false mortgage applications, rent claims and invoices for services.

And the cost to taxpayers of paying their legal representatives is likely to run into six figures, depending on the length of the trial, and could spiral even higher as the men threaten to take their battle to the new Supreme Court.

Tory peer Lord Hanningfield, who is accused of making false claims for travel allowances, has not made an application for legal aid.

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Mr Cameron said: "It is a complete outrage that people who wouldn't even stand in the dock and answer the charges now expect everyone to pay for their legal defence."

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne condemned the decision.

"It's absurd that well-to-do MPs on double national average earnings and extra expenses to boot should be entitled to legal aid when so many more deserving cases have been refused," he said.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said that no one on an MP's salary should get legal aid. "These MPs have already cost taxpayers an absolute fortune, and they should not get another penny," he said.

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The decision over whether taxpayers should pay for the legal

representation of criminal suspects is left to individual courts, with officials asked to consider whether the application meets an "interests of justice" test. A new system of partial means testing is being trialled in certain courts.

The accused politicians have already brought together some of the country's most eminent barristers to fight their cases, claiming that as MPs they are protected by parliamentary privilege. A protracted legal argument over whether they should face trial at all is likely to ensue later this year.

They could still be ordered to pay back some of the legal costs at the conclusion of their trial, however. Officials can ask the judge to order that some or all of the defence costs are paid back.

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Scunthorpe MP Morley, 57, of Winterton, North Lincolnshire, is accused of falsely claiming 30,000 in interest payments on a mortgage already paid off.

Bury North MP Chaytor, 60, of Todmorden, 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.

Livingston MP Devine, 56, of West Lothian, is said to have wrongly submitted two invoices worth 5,500, and to have dishonestly claimed cleaning and maintenance costs of 3,240.

Former Essex County Council leader Lord Hanningfield, 69, faces six charges of making dishonest claims for travelling allowances.

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