My point is that he shouldn’t sit it out until the general election when yes Laws may well get comfitably re-elected but call a by-election now, face his critics head on, when re-elected he can can put this episode to rest, instead this story will linger on the Yeovil thread for the next 4 years.

Someone who I respect (who is certainly not a gossipy or spiteful character)
who I used to work with in London at the time of the 2006 council elections (and since went to another area) said that Laws was quite right wing but didn’t join the Tories because he was gay,
and I think also said that this was some old story.

So, coming from them,
I just assumed it was something that was known and that he was fine with it.

But of course, I read it quite wrong.

Around the time of the 2001 election I was in Crewkerne (part of the Yeovil Consituency) having a conversation with a reporter from a local paper and she told me he was gay, back then! If the press knew, I knew and some of the constituents I spoke toat the time knew he was gay, I’m pretty sure his political opponents at the 3 elections he has fought since 2001 must have know as well. The fact that no one seemed to take issue with it, shows what an irrelevance it is.

The Lib Dems keep telling us their MP’s are “popular local campaigners” , perhaps Laws should put it to the test, call a by-election seeking a fresh start with the people he represents.

If the lib dem theory is right this will be a formality, he will be re-elected with a new mandate and could return to a cabinet post if invited.

My deep suspicion is he won’t fancy his chances and would rather keep his head down now and pray by the next general election he will once again be able to claim to be Yeovils “Popular local campaigner” and the ill-feeling towards him cheating the system has died down.

It kind of did happen – but a few years before the main expenses saga – in the case of Derek Conway, a right-wing Tory MP who was said to have defrauded the taxpayer by paying his son the part-time equivalent of a £25,970 salary for allegedly fictitous work in relation to Conway’s parliamentary office

He was reported to the Committee on Standards and Privileges by former Metropolitan Police Inspector Michael Barnbrook, who had stood against him in the 2005 General Election as a UKIP candidate.

After an investigation, in January 2008 the Committee found there was “no record” of what work his son had done, and recommended that the House order him to repay a sum of £13,000 and that he be suspended for 10 sitting days.

In light of the evidence, Conservative party leader David Cameron decided to withdraw the Conservative Party Whip, rendering Conway free of any Parliamentary Conservative constraints, effectively leaving him as an independent MP.

He wasn’t prosecuted though

They should have all been investigated by the police, not a select few.,

I agree

But I also agree with Lithotomist in that David Cameron was very selective in who he got tough against in his own party with regards to espenses

Also given that the MPs who did overclaim are putting it down to a simple ‘mistake’, it’s funny that npne of these simple mistakes ended up with them being out of pocket