Lib Dem rising star suspended

FORMER British Liberal Democrat treasury minister David Laws was suspended for seven days from the British parliament and ordered to apologise by a committee of inquiry for breaking expenses rules.

Laws, a close ally of Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, resigned just 17 days after the party entered coalition with the Conservatives in May last year.

A former investment banker, he was seen as a rising Lib Dem star and both Clegg and Prime Minister David Cameron have said they would like to see him return to frontline politics.

The Standards and Privileges Committee said Laws should be suspended from the House of Commons for seven days, starting from June 7.

Laws stood down and referred himself to parliament’s standards commissioner after a newspaper disclosed he had breached expenses rules by claiming for rent he had paid to his landlord, who was his male partner.

Since a 2006 change in expenses regulations, MPs are barred from claiming for rent paid to a spouse, partner or relative.

After his resignation, Laws repaid £56,592 (€64,728) of expenses for London rent and food costs he had claimed since 2006.

He had said he hid the relationship with his landlord solely to keep his homosexuality secret, that the rental arrangement had not benefited him financially and had even saved the taxpayer money.