Disgraced Lord Taylor of Warwick faces Lords suspension

Lord Taylor: Could be suspended from the House of Lords
12 April 2012

A disgraced former Tory peer faces being suspended from the House of Lords after being jailed for 12 months for expenses fraud.

Lord Taylor of Warwick, 58, lied under oath during his trial in an attempt to cover up fraudulent claims of more than £11,000 in taxpayers' money, Southwark Crown Court heard.

He told the House of Lords members' expenses office that his main residence was a house in Oxford when he lived in west London.

The peer never stayed in, and only twice visited, the Oxford property, which was owned by the partner of his half-nephew, Robert Taylor.

He was therefore not entitled to claim money from the Lords authorities for travelling from there to London and staying overnight in the capital.

Although successive ministers have proposed reforms so that errant peers could be expelled, there is no way of removing them other than passing an Act of Parliament.

But an investigation by the Clerk of the Parliaments is now expected to resume following the conclusion of the trial.

It is understood the Clerk of the Parliaments has asked the Commissioner for Standards to assist him in assessing the total amount wrongly claimed by Lord Taylor and the Commissioner will report his findings in due course.

The Clerk of the Parliaments will then present recommendations to the Committee for Privileges and Conduct.

A House of Lords spokeswoman said: "The Committee for Privileges and Conduct will consider these recommendations and report to the House as a whole what action it recommends should be taken, including whether a Member be suspended or be required to apologise to the House. It will be for the House as a whole to decide whether to take that action."

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Saunders said Lord Taylor had thrown away his many positive achievements in public life "not by one stupid action but by a protracted course of dishonesty".

The judge condemned the lies told by the shamed peer to cover up his £11,277.80-worth of false parliamentary expenses claims for travel and overnight subsistence between March 2006 and October 2007.

These included false claims to journalists investigating his expenses that he lived with his sick mother until 2007, when she died six years earlier.

Mr Justice Saunders said: "The expenses scheme in the House of Lords was based on trust.
"Peers certified that their claims were accurate. They were not required to provide proof. It was considered that people who achieved a peerage could be relied on to be honest.

"Making false claims involved a breach of a high degree of trust. The expenses scandal has affected the standing not just of the House of Commons but also the House of Lords."

Lord Taylor, of Lynwood Road, Ealing, was the first parliamentarian to stand trial and be found guilty by a jury over the expenses scandal.
Mr Justice Saunders noted: "Lord Taylor has now told the probation officer that he fully accepts that he is guilty of the offences and has expressed regret and remorse for what he has done.
"While it is to his credit that Lord Taylor admits his guilt, it does mean that he accepts that he wasn't telling the truth on oath in the witness box."

Lord Taylor, a Birmingham-born former barrister, became the first black Conservative peer when he took his seat in the House of Lords in 1996.
Author Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, who received a four-year prison sentence for perjury and perverting the course of justice, and newspaper mogul Lord Black of Crossharbour, who was jailed in the US for fraud, remain members of the Lords despite their criminal convictions.

By contrast, under the Representation of the People Act 1981, MPs are automatically disqualified from the Commons if they are jailed for more than a year.

It has been revealed that about 15 fellow peers - including Lord Clarke of Hampstead, a former chairman of the Labour Party - refused to give evidence to support Lord Taylor's defence.
His lawyers, IBB Solicitors, said afterwards he was distraught at being jailed but fully accepted the court's decision.

Lord Taylor was expected to begin his sentence at Wandsworth Prison in south London, but he could be freed after serving just three months of his sentence under early release rules for non-violent prisoners who pose a low risk.

Four former Labour MPs - David Chaytor, Eric Illsley, Jim Devine and Elliot Morley - have also received prison terms for fiddling their parliamentary expenses.

Illsley and Chaytor have already been tagged and released from jail under the home detention curfew scheme after serving part of their sentences.

Another Tory peer, Lord Hanningfield, will be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court next month after he was found guilty last week of fraudulently claiming nearly £14,000 in his Lords expenses.

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