Labour suspends MPs charged over expenses

London: Conservative Party and opposition leader David Cameron claimed to have scored a tactical victory after the Labour Party announced it was suspending the three MPs accused of false accounting in relation to their parliamentary expenses.

The Tories said that Labour only took the decision after Cameron identified Labour's failure to discipline the three as an example of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's inability to deal with the expenses issue properly.

Labour rejected this, saying that the three were suspended as the result of a formal process that began at the end of last week.

The news broke shortly before Cameron was due to deliver a speech that will come close to suggesting that Brown has been trying to protect the three Labour MPs.

Intervention

The allegations have infuriated Labour, and given rise to suggestions that Cameron's intervention could prevent the accused getting a fair trial.

The expenses controversy has damaged the reputation of all MPs and until today Cameron has been cautious about exploiting it for party political advantage. But in a speech scheduled yesterday at the University of East London, Cameron was expected to attack the prime minister in relation to this issue in personal terms.

At the end of last week the three Labour MPs, Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine, as well as the Tory peer Lord Hanningfield were charged with false accounting. Lawyers for the accused have suggested that a criminal trial could be a breach of parliamentary privilege.

According to extracts of the speech released in advance, Cameron was to pledge to introduce a Parliamentary Privileges Act to ensure that MPs in cases of this kind cannot use the 1689 Bill of Rights to protect themselves.

The Bill of Rights protects parliamentarians from legal liability "for words spoken or things done in the course of, or for the purposes of or incidental to, any proceedings in parliament".

Pledging to prevent this happening in future, the Tory leader was expected to say: "Look how [Gordon Brown] tolerates the disgusting sight of Labour MPs taking parliamentary privilege designed to help MPs fight for their constituents; for truth and justice, and abuse it in order to avoid prosecution for fraud and wrongdoing. I can announce today that I have asked George Young [shadow leader of the commons] to prepare a new Parliamentary Privilege Act to clarify the rules of parliamentary privilege, to make clear that they cannot be used by MPs to evade justice."

Cameron was also expected to say that Brown should withdraw the whip from the three Labour MPs. Hanningfield had the Tory whip withdrawn from him shortly after it was announced on Friday that he was being charged.