Elliot Morley, former agriculture minister, was described by the judge who sentenced him to 16 months in jail today as guilty of “blatant dishonesty”.
Morley was “flushed” but didn’t speak during the hearing, the Telegraph reports. “Red-faced” is surely how the papers will put it tomorrow. And so they should – he did claim over £30,000 in bogus mortgage payments as part of a scam that the judge confirmed was deliberate and “not explicable even in part by oversight."
As a former minister and an MP for over 20 years, Morley is the most high profile of those prosecuted as a result of the expenses scandal in 2009. He’s also now been “excluded” from the Labour party, according to a spokesman.
I don’t for a second want to suggest that Elliot Morley or any of the other MPs who have been punished to a greater or lesser extent weren’t done so with absolute justification. Nor that the furore that has surrounded this story for the past two years isn’t completely understandable.
But can we draw a line under this now? Of course MPs should have to account for how they’re spending the public’s money. But as MPs such as Labour’s Tom Harris have pointed out repeatedly since, the new system is far from perfect. And the claims from the Yes to AV campaign that changing our voting system would somehow repair the damage done to the public’s trust in politicians because of the expenses scandal was also extremely misleading.
Those at fault have been tried, and in Morley’s case, sentenced. Politics has been damaged, and is now attempting to heal itself.
Let’s just get on with it now, shall we?
Comments
Nope / May 20 2011 2:53pm
To get on with it? What about David Laws? the whip should have been taken off him.
Guido Fawkes / May 20 2011 3:37pm
No.
Accidental Anarchist / May 20 2011 4:06pm
Those who think it's now over are mistaken. MacShane still has to get his comeuppance and there are investigations going on into others yet to be named.
Rik / May 20 2011 4:53pm
Not a chance that this is over, the public want blood and they know that many got back in last year who are as bad, if not worse, than Eric Illsley for example, or the wonderfully arrogant Denis MacShane whose met police investigation is still ongoing.
Derek Kissach / May 21 2011 4:29pm
Politicians, and in fact anyone on the public payroll have some favourite default phrases, such as: THIS MUST NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN/LET'S MOVE ON/LET'S NOT APPORTION BLAME/LESSONS MUST BE LEARNED. Etc.
I don't know who Caroline Crampton is, but she, like a lot of the media, is far too close to Politics.
As far as I'm concerned, the matter is far from closed. The handful of politicians prosecuted is a sick joke. Politicians en masse, set up a system to routinely defraud the TAXPAYER, and I for one would like to see a much larger number in court, as well as a windfall tax on past and present politicians, to scrape back at least some of the money they've defraded from us on their housing and travel scams.
Derek.
Martin T / May 23 2011 3:03pm
No. There are a lot of MPs who have not come before the courts, they deliberately claimed these expenses when found out they payed some or all the money back, that does not excuse them, if after all, a thief is caught shop lifting is up before the beak, the fact that they payed back the price of the goods, acts as mitigating the sentence that would be past upon him/her, but the crime goes on their police record. Duck house man and moat cleaning man for instance, claimed for things, which by even a stretch of the imagination could be hardly be called essential for parliamentary duties.