Labour suspends lawmakers facing expenses trial

LONDON, Monday

Britain’s ruling Labour party today suspended three legislators facing criminal charges over their expenses to try to limit the damage from the case before an election to be held by June.

The three, already barred from standing again as Labour candidates, will remain members of the House of Commons but will be excluded from Labour party meetings and will no longer be part of its parliamentary bloc.

Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron said the suspension was a “humiliating change” for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour and said it was in “headlong retreat”.

Mr Cameron had sought to exploit public outrage over the legislators’ conduct after a week of opinion polls showing the Conservatives slipping to a single-digit lead over Labour.

Mr Cameron had raised the pre-election rhetoric by launching a personal attack on Mr Brown, calling him a “shameless defender of the old elite”.

The Labour party said it had been considering the position of the three members of parliament (MPs) — Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine since they were charged on Friday. It said it made the suspensions “in the light of the serious allegations against them”. (Reuters)