Three MPs and peer to face charges over expenses

Three Labour MPs and a Tory peer were today charged with theft by false accounting on Westminster's blackest day.

Labour's Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine and Tory shadow communities minister Lord Hanningfield will all be prosecuted, the Director of Public Prosecutions announced.

A fifth criminal investigation, believed to involve Labour peer Baroness Uddin, is still on-going and charges are under consideration.

DPP Keir Starmer said there was insufficient evidence to charge Labour's Lord Clarke over his use of peers' overnight allowances. Today's criminal charges — which centre on claims for mortgages, computers, rents and stationery — are the first to result from the MPs' expenses affair that hit Parliament last spring.

The scandal, which has tarnished Britain's reputation around the world, has led to a revolution in the way Parliament polices its use of public money and has ended the political careers of scores of MPs. The charge of false accounting carries a possible seven-year jail term.

The four accused vigorously denied the charges today, with Mr Devine even claiming he was being "picked on" by the police. "If you look at the Legg report, I'm being questioned over two receipts that amounted to about £8,000," he said. "I don't understand why I was picked on."

In a statement, the three Labour MPs said: "We are clearly extremely disappointed that the DPP has decided to instigate proceedings against us.

"We totally refute any charges that we have committed an offence and we will defend our position robustly."

The MPs said they believed their cases should have been dealt with by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, adding: "We are confident of our position and have been advised by eminent QCs."

Gordon Brown said he was "very angry" about the scandal. He went on: "These are very serious criminal allegations. All criminal allegations must be investigated. It's a matter now for the courts. We must get rid of the old politics. They can't be part of the new system."

The charges under the Theft Act follow a special investigation set up by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson weeks after the scandal broke last May.

The files on the six parliamentarians accused of the worst excesses were passed to the Crown Prosecution Service in November and December.

Mr Morley, Labour MP for Scunthorpe and former agriculture minister, faces two counts of dishonestly claiming expenses for his mortgage.

Mr Chaytor, Labour MP for Bury North, faces three charges of false accounting over his invoices for IT services and second home claims.

Mr Devine, Labour MP for Livingston, faces two charges of false accounting over cleaning and stationery invoices.

Lord Hanningfield, who today re-signed as leader of Essex County Council, faces six charges relating to claims for overnight stays in London from March 2006 to last May.

He claimed for the House of Lords overnight allowance, but had driven home and did not stay overnight, said Mr Starmer. He was also today suspended from the Tory front bench and had the whip withdrawn.

Mr Devine said: "I am astonished and devastated at the decision taken today. Two new charges have been brought, both easily explained and both of which I'll be explaining in court."

He has already been barred from standing for Labour at the coming general election. Mr Morley and Mr Chaytor are also stepping down.

Lord Hanningfield said he refuted the charges and would "vigorously" defend himself against them. "All claims I ever made were in good faith," he said.

The last MP charged with false acc-ounting was Labour's John Stonehouse, who faked his own death in 1974.

Today's CPS announcements follow yesterday's damning verdict on MPs' expenses by Sir Thomas Legg, who audited all claims in recent years and branded the system "deeply flawed".

Hundreds of MPs were ordered to repay a total of £1.12 million.

DAVID CHAYTOR
The backbench Labour MP for Bury North faces Rhree charges of false accounting — including a claim that he used public money to rent a home from his elderly mother.

He is accused of dishonestly claiming £1,950 for IT services in May 2006 by using false invoices. Mr Chaytor has been charged with claiming £12,925 between September 2005 and September 2006 for renting a property in Regency Street, Pimlico, which he owned. Thirdly, he is accused of dishonestly claiming £5,425 between September 2007 and January last year —purportedly for renting a property in Lancashire, from his mother.

Reports last year alleged that Mr Chaytor, 60, who is married with three children, had some of the most controversial arrangements of any MP. Since 2004, he claimed for five different properties, "flipping" his designated second home between London, Yorkshire and Bury — one a house registered in his son's name. After being exposed last year, he said he had made an "unforgivable error in my accounting procedures for which I apologise unreservedly". Mr Chaytor said he was repaying the money immediately and referred himself to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon. The former teacher and lecturer was suspended from the Labour Party and said he would not seek re-election.

ELLIOT MORLEY
The Labour MP for Scunthorpe, a former environment minister, faces two charges of false accounting.

He is accused of illegally overclaiming £14,428 between April 2004 and February 2006 for a mortgage on a property in Winterton, Lincolnshire. He is also charged with dishonestly claiming £16,000 in mortgage expenses between March 2006 and November 2007 on the same home when the mortgage no longer existed.

Mr Morley, 57, reportedly repaid £16,800 to the parliamentary authorities two weeks before the MPs' expenses scandal broke last May, and offered an unreserved apology for a "mistake" he blamed on "sloppy accounting". He was suspended from the Labour Party and as the Prime Minister's climate envoy. He refused to resign as an MP but announced he would not seek re-election. He reported himself to Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon in a bid to clear his name.

The father of two, a former councillor and special needs teacher from Liverpool, entered Parliament in 1987 and was an environment minister between 1997 and 2006. His responsibilities included foxhunting and the foot-and-mouth outbreak. He has been a birdwatcher since boyhood.

In a statement last May, Mr Morley said he did his accounts in "yearly bundles" and he had "simply let the established payment run as it has for some years". He said: "I accept that I have made a mistake in this case and have rectified it in full. I deeply apologise for such sloppy accounting in a very loose and shambolic allowance system but there is nobody to blame but myself and I take full responsibility for this. I apologise unreservedly."

LORD HANNINGFIELD
The Tory front-bench spokesman in the Lords has been charged, under the name Paul White, with six offences of false accounting.

Between March 2006 and May 2009, he is alleged to have "dishonestly submitted claims for expenses to which he knew he was not entitled". This included "numerous claims for overnight expenses for staying in London when records show that he was driven home and did not stay overnight in London". Attention had focused on Lord Hanningfield after Parliamentary records showed he claimed almost £100,000 in overnight subsistence over seven years despite living 46 miles from Parliament. He has a taxpayer-funded chauffeur from his other job as leader of Essex County Council.

A former pig farmer, he became an Essex councillor in 1970, was made a peer in 1998 and is the Tory spokesman on local government and transport in the Lords.

JIM DEVINE
Scottish Labour MP Jim Devine faces two charges of false accounting — one for dishonestly claiming £3,240 for cleaning services using false invoices between July 2008 and last April, and a second for dishonestly claiming £5,505 for stationery using false invoices last March.

Known throughout Westminster as a gossip, Mr Devine, who was Robin Cook's election agent and succeeded him as MP for Livingston after the former Foreign Secretary's sudden death in 2005, had struggled to explain newspaper allegations relating to his London flat and constituency office.

He was initially believed to have made false claims for office shelving in his constituency office and electrical repair work at his London flat. He claimed to have been the victim of a vindictive campaign by a former employee but has been barred from standing again for Labour. He denies wrongdoing and said: "I basically made a mistake."