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Head axeman forced to resignCoalition red-faced as millionaire Lib Dem caught fiddling expenses

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Incorporating the Daily Worker www.morningstaronline.co.uk Monday May 31 2010

by Paddy McGuffinHome Affairs ReporterTHE Con-Dem coalition government faced further embarrassment at the weekend after Treasury Chief Secre-tary David Laws dramatically resigned over abusing his expenses just weeks into his new role.

The Lib Dem MP, who along with George Osborne is overseeing vicious cuts to public services, spectacularly fell from grace when it emerged that he had claimed £40,000 of public money to rent a room in his partner’s home.

The millionaire ex-banker acknowl-edged the breach of expenses guidelines but claimed he had acted not for financial gain but to keep his sexuality a secret.

Between 2004 and 2007, Mr Laws claimed between £700 and £950 a month to sublet a room in a flat in Kennington, south London, from his long-term part-ner, lobbyist James Lundie.

Mr Lundie sold the flat for a profit of £193,000 in 2007, buying another house nearby for £510,000.

The MP then began claiming for rent on the second bedroom in this property. His claims increased to £920 a month.

Mr Lundie also lived at the property. Mr Laws’s main home is in his Yeovil constituency.

The arrangement continued until September 2009, when parliamentary records indicate that Mr Laws switched his designated second home and began renting another flat at taxpayers’ ex-pense. His partner remained at the Kennington house.

The MP pledged to repay the money immediately and reported himself to the parliamentary standards commit-tee but on Saturday night he apparently

felt his position had become untenable and informed David Cameron of his resignation.

Announcing his departure, he said: “I do not see how I can carry out my crucial work on the Budget and spend-ing review while I have to deal with the private and public implications of re-cent revelations.”

Prime Minister David Cameron praised Mr Laws as a “good and honour-able man,” suggesting he could return to government “in time.”

And Lib Dem Deputy PM Nick Clegg said the Yeovil MP’s downfall had been caused purely by his desire for privacy, which had now been “cruelly shattered.”

The loss of Mr Laws after just 17 days in office is a major setback for the coalition.

Mr Laws has been replaced by Danny Alexander, another key figure in coali-tion talks, who will now take centre stage in pushing through the govern-ment’s drastic cuts programme.

Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn said that the issue of Mr Laws’s expenses was a matter for the parliamentary standards commisioner.

But regarding his brief ministerial role, Mr Corbyn said: “David Laws held a Cabinet position for 17 days, during which period he proposed £6 billion of cuts which will hit the poorest people in the country.

“He received laudatory coverage in a number of papers but the reality was he was shaping up to be the biggest butch-er of the coalition government.

“People should realise that and also what this government has in store for the country.”

paddym@peoples-press.comStar comment: p10

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