Labour MP David Chaytor suspended from the party (From Prestwich and Whitefield Guide)

Labour MP David Chaytor suspended from the party

12:50pm Monday 8th February 2010

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Bury North MP David Chaytor - who is facing criminal charges over his expenses claims - has been suspended from the party.

The Labour MP was suspended alongside Scunthorpe MP Elliot Morley and Livingston MP Jim Devine who are all being prosecuted on several counts of false accounting.

A Labour spokesman has said they had been “administratively” suspended and would lose the whip in Parliament.

In a statement, Labour said: “The Labour Party’s general secretary has today suspended David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Elliot Morley’s membership of the Labour Party in light of the serious allegations against them. They had already been barred from standing for Parliament as Labour candidates.

”The decision follows a formal process which included representations from the Chief Whip and consultations with party officials over the weekend and means the three MPs have been suspended from the whip and cannot attend any Labour Party meetings.”

The three MPs have vowed to put up a robust defence after their charges were detailed by Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer on Friday.

They argue that they should have been dealt with by the Commons authorities rather than the police.

Mr Starmer said the MPs’ lawyers had already indicated they were considering using parliamentary privilege as a defence.

Commons Leader Harriet Harman insisted today that she was “completely satisfied” that parliamentary privilege did not apply to cases like theft or fraud.

”The criminal law applies to MPs just the same as it does to everyone else,” she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, adding that Mr Starmer appeared to think the same.

Mr Morley, Mr Devine and Mr Chaytor issued a joint statement today stressing that their legal costs were being “privately funded”.

”Neither the Labour Party nor Gordon Brown has any involvement in our cases whatsoever,” they said.

”On the issue of parliamentary privilege, our approach is not one of trying to avoid culpability or seek immunity, but simply to determine the correct forum in which to make our case.

”Indeed, the DPP in his statement on 5th February concluded the applicability and extent of any parliamentary privilege should be tested in court.”

The three MPs will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court - a few hundred yards from Parliament - on March 11. If found guilty, they could face jail sentences of up to seven years.

They all deny the charges.

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