Three former MPs face criminal trial over expenses
Three former Labour MPs will face criminal trials over their expenses claims, after they lost their appeal in the Supreme Court.
David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine, who deny theft by false accounting, tried to overturn a criminal case by claiming Parliamentary privilege.
They argued that any investigation into their expenses claims “should lie within the hands of Parliament”.
But the Supreme Court upheld an earlier ruling that they were not protected by privilege.
Former Bury North MP Chaytor, ex-Scunthorpe MP Morley and former Livingston MP Devine now face separate trials at London’s Southwark Crown Court. The first trial is due to start on November 22.
A spokesman for the Supreme Court said the decision was needed urgently because of the criminal proceedings that are currently pending. The reasons for the the ruling will be announced at a later date.
Nigel Pleming QC, representing Chaytor and Devine, told a panel of nine Supreme Court Justices at a hearing in October that the Parliamentary expenses scheme was part of proceedings in the House.
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.
“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,” Mr Pleming said.
“So far as we are aware these are the first criminal prosecutions of Members of the House of Commons in relation either to a statement made in or to Parliament or its delegates, or based on a member’s dealings with Parliament – for over 300 years.”
He added: “These proceedings have been brought, and conducted, against an extremely adverse, even hostile, media and political background.”