Expenses MPs to face criminal trial

THREE former Labour MPs will have to face criminal trials over their expenses claims, London’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine, who deny charges they abused their parliamentary expenses, had argued they were protected by ancient laws of parliamentary privilege.

Their case is the first criminal prosecution stemming from a wider scandal that erupted last year over parliamentary expenses, provoking public anger at a time of economic retrenchment.

The men had submitted that the right of parliamentary privilege, which protects MPs’ freedom of speech, also extended to rules controlling their expenses, meaning that only parliament could take action against them.

They had appealed to the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of a judge who had dismissed their claim at a hearing in June.

The men had cited the 1689 Bill of Rights which states that “freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any place or court outside parliament”.

They face a maximum term of seven years in jail.