Labour MPs and Tory peer face jail

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Three Labour MPs and a Conservative peer are to appear in court under the Theft Act charged with false accounting after they were found to have claimed for money they weren't entitled to on their expenses. Another Labour MP – Harry Cohen – is still being investigated by police.

As we reported in early February, the MPs are Elliot Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor and the Tory peer is Lord Hanningfield (aka Essex County Council leader Paul White). All four deny the allegations, saying they "totally refute any charges that we have committed an offence". If found guilty the maximum sentence they will be looking at is seven years in jail.

Cohen, who will not be standing at the general election, is said to have had a £65,000 pay-off for retiring MPs taken off him after it was alleged he had carried out a "serious" breach of expenses rules.