Labour boots out fraud charge MPs

MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine were barred from sitting as Labour members or from attending any meeting organised by the party.

They had already been banned by the party's national executive from standing again as Labour candidates.

The Labour whip was withdrawn on Monday following urgent talks between party chiefs and government chief whip Nick Brown.

The three MPs, along with Tory peer Lord Hanningfield, face charges of false accounting under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968.

Some legal experts have argued that MPs' expense claims may be covered by the ancient laws of parliamentary privilege, which protect MPs from prosecution for outspoken comments in the Commons chamber.

However, a spokesman for Gordon Brown emphasised: "The Prime Minister believes that no MP is above the law.

"The criminal law obviously applies to MPs in the same way as it does to anyone else."

He added that the government was prepared to introduce legislation to clarify the law, "if this proves necessary."

Millionaire Tory leader David Cameron, who has repaid £965.45 following the expenses furore, sought to make more political capital out of the situation yesterday.

Mr Cameron demanded a change in the law to prevent the "disgusting sight" of MPs trying to use parliamentary privilege to avoid prosecution for abuse of expenses.

He challenged Mr Brown to withdraw the parliamentary whip from the three Labour members - a wish that was immediately granted by the Labour Party yesterday.

Mr Cameron is also asking shadow Commons leader Sir George Young to prepare a new Parliamentary Privilege Act to "clarify the rules."

Whined the Tory leader: "How Gordon Brown can claim to be a reformer with a straight face, I just don't know. He can't reform the institution because he is the institution."

But Justice Secretary Jack Straw condemned Mr Cameron's speech as "breathtaking for its sheer hypocrisy."

He added: "Just a few months ago, the Conservative Party were actively sabotaging all efforts to exclude the ambit of parliamentary privilege from the new laws on MPs' expenses."

And Commons leader Harriet Harman warned that Mr Cameron's "downright opportunistic" comments were in danger of prejudicing the forthcoming criminal trial of the MPs.