Laws will be back
The suspension of David Laws MP for seven days, on top of paying back wrongly made claims and losing his ministerial position last year, is a reasonable and proportionate response to the findings of the Parliamentary Commissioner’s review into seven years of his expense claims.
We at Liberal Vision, or on many other matters, the David Laws Appreciation Society, hope this is a pause not the end of his career.
We hope he will be back in Government at some point within a year.
Where the Telegraph and some others believe Laws has to wait until after 2015 and the verdict of Yeovil, that seems unduly harsh.
His highly personal, if misjudged, privacy motive matters. That the taxpayer has not lost out and may have even saved money as a result of his deception also matters.
His was the act of a public figure who did not wish to live their private life in public, and made a bad choice, not a greedy thief seeking personal gain.
Further Yeovil’s chance to decide whether or not David should remain an MP will come regardless.
Whether or not he is an asset to the Cabinet remains a decision for the Prime Minster. David Cameron will we think put the national interest first.
May 13th, 2011 at 1:01 am
He’s one of the Liberal Democrat MPs I like most, but I’m afraid that a serious degree of party colour blindness is being applied here: he broke the rules, and lied to claim expenses to which he was not entitled. He rejected a transparent approach and used the money of the taxpayer to cover himself.
A more reasonable approach, I feel, would have been for him to lean on the huge amount of money that one can only assume he made in his career before politics. Or in fact, his generous Parliamentary salary. That he supposedly “saved the taxpayer money” by not charging the extortionate maximum amount of expenses to which he is ‘entitled’ is neither here nor there. He lied, and used money which he shouldn’t have, when he has enough of his own.
Would the same leniency be applied to someone who committed benefit or insurance fraud, if they did so to protect their own privacy? Of course not. Do so with your own money, by all means.
I do not think he should return to cabinet. Given his majority it may well be that a by-election would be a waste of time, but that would probably be fairest to his constituents.
May 13th, 2011 at 8:03 am
I believe DL in 2010 had a larger % majority than Paddy used to have.
I imagine the people of Yeovil don’t want their time wasted with a by election, particularly as it would bring all sorts of unwelcome annoying sorts to the area like Milliband and Balls.
May 13th, 2011 at 8:11 am
I do see the point Mike and the case I made last year was that David might wish to submit himself to a recall ballot if that proposal was included in the electoral reforms. That would quickly test whether people forgave him, isolated from the wider political jamboree that a by-election brings.
The benefit/insurance fraud point is also legally correct but I think misleading. Are there any real instances of these where someone has commited a deception to get less money than they were entitled, were they still prosecuted, and how severely?
There is no dispute that Laws deserves censure and punishment. Career-ending I’m not so sure.
Worth testing democratically, possibly. If activists in Yeovil start such a campaign, and it gets real momentum, he would be wise to welcome it.
Charging into that decision himself though, right now, would be politically unwise. It wouldn’t look principled or courageous, more like an arrogant short-cut to get himself back in the Cabinet.
Better I think to ride out the year in Yeovil, get the sense of whether people still want him and then decide.
David Davis I think tested the public’s patience for using by-elections to make political guestures. It made him look silly and acheived nothing for his cause.
May 13th, 2011 at 8:19 am
All very well on an obscure internet Blog. However out in the rest of the world the placards of the Evening Standard read “Lib Dem cheat MP says sorry”.
That’s what the publci will remember, and that’s what the enemies of the Liberal Democrats will repeat.
May 13th, 2011 at 10:35 am
Time for a brain check – you are blinded by your tribal loyalty.
Laws has been caught cheating. In a private company he would get the sack. Being re-elected would not wipe away his sins.
Have you forgiven the creepy Mandelson ?
May 13th, 2011 at 10:42 am
@ Jack Hughes
I seem to have missed the point you were making with the Mandelson comparison?
Is it that Labour went down to a crushing defeat following Mand’s return to government giving the Tories a huge majority, oh wait…
Is it that he set a precident that all others must follow by standing down and devoting him self to charitable works, ah…
I’m trying to see where you were going with that?
May 13th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
To take a year to produce a 13 page document is woeful in the extreme….
I believe that had this been in the private sector as you suggest then yes he MIGHT have been taken to court – but, having some experience in this area, I believe that if it did get to court, the courts would almost certainly take into account mitigating circumstances and he would have received a very light punishment indeed.
It is hardly surprising that Labour MPs ae calling for the police to be involved – its terribly predictable. As a Conservative who lives quite near his constituency I will support this chap and believe that there is no appetite from the local Conservatives within his area to push for an early by election.
Mr Laws made a mistake. He has said sorry and will serve his punishment. End of the story. As far as I can see if his constituents want an election they should have one. If they don’t the subject is closed.
May 13th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Can anyone explain why all those Lords (Lord Rennard ( a Liberal Democrat peer) was one as I recall) got away with claiming to live in seaside /holiday/relatives homes whilst occupying huge great pads in London seven days a week and got away with £thousands – and were not censured at all.. now that is hypocracy.
May 13th, 2011 at 7:18 pm
He is … the Laws!