Expenses scandal claims its first scalps

BRITAIN’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday suspended ex-minister Elliot Morley from the Parliamentary Labour Party and an aide to Tory leader David Cameron quit his post, as the Westminster expenses scandal claimed its first scalps.

Morley, MP for Scunthorpe, now faces expulsion from Labour ranks if charges that he wrongly claimed £16,000 (€17,856) in allowances for a mortgage already paid off are backed up by Parliamentary Commissioner on Standards, John Lyon.

The prime minister also suspended former fisheries minister Morley from his post as the premier’s climate change envoy.