No parliamentary privilege for former UK MPs in expenses case, court rules

Three former British Labour MPs and a Tory peer will stand trial in a criminal court accused of fiddling their expenses, a judge ruled today.

The criminal courts have the power to try the four men and they are not protected from prosecution in the crown courts by parliamentary privilege, Mr Justice Saunders told Southwark Crown Court in central London.

Former Labour MPs David Chaytor, Elliot Morley, and Jim Devine, and Conservative Party peer Paul White are accused of theft by false accounting.