Corrupt Tory lord - Now the norm.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2626094/Disgraced-Tory-peer-suspended-Parliament-clocking-30-minutes-claim-300-day.html

Oh, dear oh dear.

Shamed former Tory peer Lord Hanningfield will be suspended from the House of Lords for claiming more than £3,000 for work he did not do, it was announced this morning.

The former Essex County Council leader was caught turning up at Parliament to 'clock in and out' to claim his daily allowance before leaving minutes later to go home.

Parliamentary sleaze chief, the Lords Commissioner for Standards, investigated 11 occasions when the peer spent less than 40 minutes in Parliament but claimed the full £300. He found that Lord Hanningfield 'did not undertake parliamentary work' on these days and should be kicked out of the Lords until next year for ripping off the taxpayer.
The former Lords opposition frontbencher and Essex County Council leader Lord Hanningfield has already spent time in jail for expenses fraud
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The former Lords opposition frontbencher and Essex County Council leader Lord Hanningfield has already spent time in jail for expenses fraud

In total the Commissioner, ex-Hampshire chief constable Paul Kernaghan, found Lord Hanningfield had ripped off the taxpayer for £3,300 in daily allowance claims. In making these claims Lord Hanningfield 'failed to act on his personal honour'.

It is the second time the peer has been caught ripping of Parliament's pay and expenses regime. He served nine weeks in prison in 2011 for fiddling £28,000 in expenses.

Lord Hanningfield will now be forced to repay the £3,300 he wrongly claimed this time. He also faces being suspended from the House of Lords until at least May next year - the maximum punishment available.

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The Tory peer was caught by the Daily Mirror claiming the daily attendance allowance on 11 days in July 2013 when he had not done any work.

Under House of Lords rules, peers only have to sign-in personally in Westminster to get their hands on the £300-a-day 'attendance allowance'.

But in his report to the House of Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee, which investigates sleaze claims, the Commissioner said peers must also 'undertake parliamentary work on the day of the claim'.
Tory peer Lord Hanningfield, pictured here leaving Chelmsford Crown Court in 2011, was found guilty of fiddling his Parliamentary expenses and sent to prison. But he still kept his seat in the Lords
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Tory peer Lord Hanningfield, pictured here leaving Chelmsford Crown Court in 2011, was found guilty of fiddling his Parliamentary expenses and sent to prison. But he still kept his seat in the Lords

The Commissioner said Lord Hanningfield was unable to show that he undertook any parliamentary work on the days when he was caught clocking in and out in under an hour.

The recommendation to suspend Lord Hanningfield must now be approved by peers in the House of Lords before coming into force. Peers will be asked to approve the report and the suspension tomorrow.

Despite Lord Hanningfield's suspension, he will be able to take back his seat after the next election.
Even peers jailed for serious criminal offences, like Lord Hanningfield, cannot be permanently removed from the House of Lords.

MPs lose their seats if they are sentenced to more than a year in prison. But peers can only be banned from the Lords for the duration of their sentence - or until the next election.

Tory peer Lord Archer was jailed for four years for perjury and perverting the course of justice in 2001.

He had lied under oath during his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star over allegations he had sex with a prostitute. Yet he is still a peer and has been allowed to keep his seat.

Jailed former media tycoon Conrad Black spent three years in a US jail for defrauding investors. He was released in May last year and may return to the Lords.

Lord Hanningfield and Lord Taylor of Warwick, both jailed for fiddling their expenses, have kept their seats in the House of Lords. They are all eligible for a £300 attendance rate.

But Lord Hanningfield, 73, speaking for the first time since the damning judgement was published this morning, insisted he was 'unaware' at the time that he was doing anything wrong.

He said he regarded his peer's allowances as a 'de facto salary' and made it clear he intended to return to the House of Lords after his suspension.

Lord Hanningfield said: 'Since my release from prison and return to the House, I have had but one goal in mind, and that is to return to work and continue to serve the taxpayer, something I believe I have tried my very best to do since I became a peer in 1998.

'Following my release from prison I was suffering from psychological and physical health problems, I was anxious about returning to the House following my suspension and while it was thoughtless of me to claim the full allowance on the 11 dates in question, considering I spent so little time on the parliamentary estate, I never attempted to hide any of these transgressions, simply because I was unaware that what I was doing was wrong.

'Nevertheless, I would like to thank my fellow peers, and members of the general public, for their ongoing support during what has been the most difficult period of my life.

'I regret that my mistakes have ultimately resulted in me being suspended from the House but would like to assure the people and organisations that I was in the process of helping that I will continue with the work that I have started, outside the Lords, to ensure that our efforts will not have been wasted upon my return.

'Like many other Lords, I believe the allowance to be a 'de facto' salary, something which the Commissioner himself conceded in his report, is an acceptable way to view it.

'As I have stated many times before, I claim the allowance on 100 days during the year, which amounts to an annual salary of £30,000 and no more. I also consider myself to be a working peer every single day of the year and regularly conduct parliamentary work outside of the parliamentary estate, from my home in Essex.

'And so, even if I am not speaking in the House or participating in a debate or vote, I am still required to travel to the House in order to claim the allowance, just as there are many more days a year where I will work all day and not claim at all.

'The fact remains that the Daily Mirror elected to follow me and monitor my movements over the course of a month in which I was decidedly unwell, and I maintain that had they chosen to do so in any other month since, they would have gleaned an entirely different account of my activities and efforts, one which far more accurately reflects my normal routine.

'The House of Lords does not offer any form of 'sick pay' and while I realise that my efforts to return to the House proved to be counter-productive, I rely on the aforementioned allowance in order to pay the various people whom I employ.

'It appears that I am now going to be reprimanded, on a technicality, as I could not provide "substantial" evidence of the work that must be carried out on the days in question, in order to justify the claim, even though that would appear to contradict the principal idea that the allowance may indeed be viewed as a 'de facto' salary.

'It will be difficult to recover from this most recent setback but that has never stopped me before. It will at least allow me the opportunity to complete the book I have begun to write on my life, and the last five years in particular.'

Labour MP John Mann called on the Government to introduce legislation in next month's Queen's Speech to automatically expel anyone committing a criminal offence from the House of Lords.

The Bassetlaw MP said: 'A one-year ban is hopelessly inadequate. Lord Hanningfield should be banned for life.

'If this were a case of a benefits cheat who repeatedly offended, he would receive a significant prison sentence.

'A lifetime ban is the only appropriate punishment for the 'clocking in' Lord Hanningfield."

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It's hard to imagine what else Lord Hanningfield could do to be thrown out of the House of Lords for good.

'It's welcome news that he's been suspended for the rest of this Parliament but taxpayers are right to be angry that he'll be back on the red benches in a year's time. The reputation of Parliament will be dragged even deeper into the mud if he has the cheek to take another penny from the taxpayer.

'The system should be reformed so those with criminal convictions can be expelled permanently.'

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