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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Police to look at MP allegations | Police to look at MP allegations |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Allegations about MPs' allowances are to be examined by a panel of police officers and lawyers amid growing calls for action over the expenses scandal. | Allegations about MPs' allowances are to be examined by a panel of police officers and lawyers amid growing calls for action over the expenses scandal. |
| Met officers and Crown Prosecution Service lawyers will look at complaints made against individual MPs to see if they merit a criminal investigation. | Met officers and Crown Prosecution Service lawyers will look at complaints made against individual MPs to see if they merit a criminal investigation. |
| Labour minister Shahid Malik stood down on Friday pending an inquiry into his expenses, and has defended his actions. | Labour minister Shahid Malik stood down on Friday pending an inquiry into his expenses, and has defended his actions. |
| MPs from all parties have repaid thousands of pounds for claims made. | MPs from all parties have repaid thousands of pounds for claims made. |
| A week after the Daily Telegraph began publishing details of expense claims, many MPs felt events were now "spiralling out of control", said BBC political correspondent Jo Coburn. | |
| While it was known the complaints made to police could come to nothing, it came as "little comfort" to MPs returning to their constituencies on Friday, she added. | |
| Stream of allegations | Stream of allegations |
| In a joint statement, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the panel would hold its first meeting next week. | |
| Public anger over the behaviour of MPs has grown as the Daily Telegraph has published details of individual expense claims made over the past few years. | Public anger over the behaviour of MPs has grown as the Daily Telegraph has published details of individual expense claims made over the past few years. |
| Due to the increase in... allegations [we have] decided to convene a panel to assess allegations... to decide whether criminal investigations should be started Joint CPS-MPS statement class="" href="/1/hi/uk/8051601.stm">Calls to prosecute expenses MPs class="" href="/1/hi/uk_politics/8051091.stm">Expense row minister steps down | |
| Liberal Democrat Culture spokesman Richard Younger-Ross and Tory MP Nadine Dorries are among the latest MPs to feature in the newspaper, with online articles published on Friday evening. | |
| Mr Younger-Ross said he had repaid more than £4,000 claimed. | |
| The Lib Dem Devon MP's claims included four mirrors costing a total of £1,235, a £1,120 hi-fi, a £500 bookcase and a £1,475 chest of drawers for his rented London flat. | |
| Mr Younger-Ross said he was given no advice on how to spend his allowances for living in London, except that it should not include luxury or antique items. | |
| "What I did not at the time consider to be luxury items, and what the House of Commons did not advise me were luxury items, clearly now are considered as such. I have therefore repaid £4,333.35," he said. | |
| He added that he had campaigned for the abolition of the expenses system and believed the House should provide furnished accommodation to eliminate the need for claims for additional costs. | |
| Hotel claim | |
| Ms Dorries rejected a string of allegations about her expenses in a lengthy reply to the Daily Telegraph on her blog. | |
| The paper said she had "admitted" only spending free weekends and holidays in the property she calls her main home - instead spending most of her time in a rented house in her constituency and claiming £18,000 second home expenses for it over two years. | |
| She said she rented a house/office/surgery in her constituency but added: "On the weekends I have free, and during the recess, I go somewhere else. I am not publishing the address." | |
| She also denied allegations she had tried to claim on her second home allowance for a hotel room just before Christmas and another on New Year's Eve - a claim refused by the Fees Office because the House of Commons was in recess. | |
| She wrote in her blog that she had had a party at home on the New Year's Eve in question. | |
| Minister steps down | |
| Earlier disclosures have led to the suspension of one former Labour minister, Elliot Morley, and justice minister Mr Malik stepping down pending investigations by ministerial standards watchdog Sir Philip Mawer. | |
| A senior adviser to David Cameron, Tory MP Andrew MacKay, was also forced to relinquish his post after the party said claims he had made towards his second home were "unacceptable". | A senior adviser to David Cameron, Tory MP Andrew MacKay, was also forced to relinquish his post after the party said claims he had made towards his second home were "unacceptable". |
| The Met said it had already held meetings with the CPS about allegations made over parliamentary expenses, even before the newspaper began its campaign a week ago. | |
| But it said that it had now decided to act upon the subsequent stream of allegations made. | |
| "Due to the increase in subsequent allegations received by the MPS, the Commissioner and Director of Public Prosecutions have jointly decided to convene a panel to assess allegations in order to decide whether criminal investigations should be started," a spokesman said. | "Due to the increase in subsequent allegations received by the MPS, the Commissioner and Director of Public Prosecutions have jointly decided to convene a panel to assess allegations in order to decide whether criminal investigations should be started," a spokesman said. |
| If somebody burgles a house and they take a television and they are caught, they can't say to the police, 'Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I'll give the television back Mark WallaceTaypayers' Alliance | |
| There had been growing calls for a police investigation into some of the claims. | |
| Former senior police officer Ray Mallon, the Mayor of Middlesbrough, called for the police to look into allegations against MPs on the grounds of potential fraud - the most high-profile figure to do so. | |
| And the TaxPayers' Alliance has complained to police about former minister Elliot Morley, who claimed £16,000 for a mortgage he had already paid off. | |
| The campaign group joined forces with the Daily Mail newspaper to raise funds for private criminal prosecutions of MPs, if the authorities failed to act. | |
| The group's Mark Wallace said people were appalled MPs thought they could rectify the situation by simply paying back the money that had been wrongly claimed. | |
| "If somebody burgles a house and they take a television and they are caught, they can't say to the police, 'Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I'll give the television back,'"he said. | |
| London Mayor Boris Johnson had also suggested calling in the police. |