Finance minister resigns over expenses revelation

BRITAIN’S coalition government was dealing its first blow after David Laws, a high-profile finance minister, resigned over expenses revelations that also exposed his homosexuality.

Laws, 44, stepped down as chief secretary to the treasury after The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported he had channelled more than £40,000 (€47,100) of taxpayers’ money in rent to his long-term boyfriend.

“I do not see how I can carry out my crucial work on the budget and spending review while I have to deal with the private and public implications of recent revelations,” Laws said.

The wealthy former banker, a member of the Liberal Democrat junior coalition partners, said he had not disclosed the financial arrangement because of “my desire to keep my sexuality secret”.

“I cannot now escape the conclusion that what I have done was in some way wrong even though I did not gain any financial benefit from keeping my relationship secret,” he said.

In a letter accepting the resignation, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron described Laws as a “good and honourable man” and said he believed he had been motivated by wanting to protect his privacy. Cameron said he hoped Laws could return to the government one day as he had “a huge amount to offer our country”.

Laws was deputy to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, of the Conservative Party, at the Treasury.

It is one of the highest-profile roles in a government that has made reducing the 2009-2010 deficit of £156.1 billion (€184bn) a priority. Osborne and Laws on Monday unveiled spending cuts of £6.2bn (€7.3bn).

The Daily Telegraph said Laws claimed up to £950 (€1,120) a month for five years to rent a room owned by his partner James Lundie, a lobbyist.