Expenses ‘privilege’ an outrage - MPs (From South Wales Argus)

Expenses ‘privilege’ an outrage - MPs

3:30pm Monday 8th February 2010

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A NEWPORT MP said it would be "an outrage" if four MPs suspected of false accounting were able to use parliamentary privilege as a defence.

Newport West MP Paul Flynn spoke out on the matter in his blog after news came Labour MPs Elliot Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor, along with Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield may use the defence.

This privilege helps protect MPs from slander claims while in the House of Commons.

Mr Flynn said if a court agrees privilege offers a defence to the claims they wrongly claimed expenses, it would be "an outrage."

He added: "It is a foolish lawyers argument. Privilege is designed to give MPs freedom to expose wrongdoing, not to protect MPs suspected of breaking the law."

The four men will appear in Westminster Magistrates Court on March 11.

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