David Laws suspended for ‘serious and substantial’ breaches of expenses rules

Laws suspended from the house for seven days and forced to apologise to MPs after standards watchdog rules former minister deceived Commons for seven years David Laws, once the rising star of the coalition government, is to face one of the toughest sanctions of the expenses scandal after a year-long inquiry ruled that he seriously and extensively broke the rules to claim rent which was paid to his partner. Laws will be suspended from the house for seven days after the standards commissioner, John Lyon, ruled that over seven years he deceived the Commons authorities by submitting claims to pay a landlord with whom he was in a relationship and sharing a home. The deception was “serious” and the sums involved “substantial”. Laws has already paid back nearly £60,000 and will now also be forced to apologise to the Commons. Lyon accepted what Laws has always claimed: that he broke the rules to protect his privacy and prevent people finding out that he was in a gay relationship, rather than to profit and that the way he claimed reduced the cost to the taxpayer. But he also suggests that the amount claimed in rent as a “lodger” in the property may have been above market value while he also claimed for other costs, such as maintenance work, that was justified as a cohabitee but were in conflict with the rules if he was simply a lodger in the property. Inadvertently or not, his partner, the lobbyist James Lundie, “benefited” under the arrangements. He said that he had “great sympathy” with the MP’s predicament, that to be honest about his relationship would have forced him to be open about his sexuality describing it as a “conflict between his private interest in secrecy and public interest in him being open and honest in relation to his expenses claims.” But whatever the MP’s motivation the deception was serious. He should have either been open with the Commons about the true nature of relationship, or not claimed expenses at all, the report says. Lyon’s report says: “I consider that Mr Laws’ breaches of the rules in respect of his second home claims were serious. I have no evidence that Mr Laws made his claims with the intention of benefiting himself or his partner in conscious breach of the rules. But the sums of money involved were substantial. He made a series of breaches. Some of them continued over a number of years.” In the accompanying report by the Commons standards and privileges committee, MPs accepted Lyon’s judgment and recommended the seven-day suspension. It is likely to dash any immediate hopes of a return to government for Laws though its understood it is very unlikely that he will resign his Yeovil seat. He will appear in the Commons this afternoon to make his apology. Laws said in statement following the publication of the report: “I accept the conclusions of the inquiry and take full responsibility for the mistakes which I have made. I apologise to my constituents and to parliament. Each of us should be our own sternest critic, and I recognise that my attempts to keep my personal life private were in conflict with my duty as an MP to ensure that my claims were in every sense above reproach. I should have resolved this dilemma in the public interest and not in the interests of my privacy.

Posted by on May 12, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.