Can MPs claim parliamentary privilege?
Updated on 06 February 2010
The three MPs charged with false accounting in the Westminster expenses scandal say they should be judged by the parliamentary authorities, not the criminal courts. Carl Dinnen reports.
Opposition leaders have reacted angrily to the news that Labour MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine may claim their expenses claims are covered by parliamentary privilege, a principle intended to stop MPs being sued for things they say in the House of Commons.
David Cameron said he was "disgusted" at the prospect, while the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said people would be appalled if the MPs relied on 17th century conventions to defend themselves.
The charges against the MPs and Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield were announced yesterday by the director of public prosecutions after a nine-month investigation. All four deny the allegations.
Clegg said: "I think people will be disgusted that MPs are proposing to use a law from 1689 to avoid facing the consequences for fiddling their expenses in 2010.
"Parliamentary privilege is there to protect the freedom of speech, not to cover up for corruption," the Lib Dem leader said.
According to the 17th century English bill of rights, "the freedom of speech and debates or proceedings in parliament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of parliament".
Jim Devine told Channel 4 News yesterday that, in the first instance, the dispute over claims should have gone through parliament.
"Why are we being dealt with by police when there is clearly a process within parliament?" he said.
The Labour party is also being urged to respond to the Livingston MP's claim on this programme last night that a Labour whip told him it was okay to claim for one expense but use the money for another.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy spoke to Paul Flynn, a Labour MP and member of the House of Commons Public Administration Committee.
Flynn urged the accused MPs to face the courts rather than use privilege "as an alibi".
"We can't put ourselves in a privileged position when we're faced with accusations," he said. "All that will happen is it will deepen the anger and the cynicism of the public against politicians, and people will say, 'Oh there they go again'."
"If they get away with it on the grounds of principle, there'll be no honour or credit in that," he added, saying that MPs accused of committing a crime should be treated in exactly the same way as ordinary citizens.
