UK police are right to look again at whether former British minister Denis MacShane’s abuse of expenses broke the law, the shadow home secretary said yesterday.
Yvette Cooper said the MP’s case should be re-examined in the light of “very severe condemnation” by Parliament’s sleaze watchdog.
The comments came after the Commons authorities insisted that damning letters from Mr MacShane to the standards commissioner could not be used against him in court. Senior officials say they are protected by parliamentary privilege because they were collected during proceedings of the House.
Interviewed on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Ms Cooper said the Standards and Privileges Committee had produced a “very serious report with very serious condemnation”.
Ex-Labour frontbencher Mr MacShane announced he was resigning as an MP on Friday after the committee recommended a year’s suspension from the Commons for claiming thousands of pounds using fake receipts.
Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon found Mr MacShane had entered 19 “misleading” expenses claims for thousands of pounds of research and translation services from a body called the European Policy Institute (EPI), signed by its supposed general manager.
However, the institute did not exist “in this form” by the time in question and the general manager’s signature was provided by Mr MacShane himself or someone else “under his authority”. As the MP controlled the EPI’s bank account, he was effectively “submitting invoices to himself and asking the parliamentary authorities to pay”.
One letter from the former Labour Europe minister to Mr Lyon in October 2009 described how he drew funds from the EPI so he could serve on a book judging panel in Paris.
The case was referred to Scotland Yard in October 2010, but police were not handed any of Mr MacShane’s evidence or the other information amassed by the commissioner.
They dropped the case this July after receiving advice from the CPS on an initial evidence file. The force has said it is now “assessing the content” of the report.
However, Commons Clerk of the Journals Liam Laurence Smyth insisted the police would still not be able to rely on Mr MacShane’s letters.
Mr Laurence Smyth, who is responsible for parliamentary privilege issues, said the correspondence would be inadmissible because it was collected by the commissioner as part of parliamentary proceedings.
He admitted many people would find the situation “surprising” but said privilege was necessary for Parliament to function effectively.