Gordon Birtwistle & Burnley Liberal Democrats

The Metropolitan Police’s decision not to open a police inquiry into members of the House of Lords who allegedly claimed to have secured amendments for paying clients has been condemned by Chris Huhne.

The Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary said:

“I can understand the difficulties facing the police given the unreformed and unclear state of the law on bribery, which is subject to recent reform proposals from the Law Commission.

“However, this is a disappointing decision because it is simply false to say that internal procedures will be able to deal with these cases, given that there is not even a mechanism for expelling miscreants.

“Cash for amendments is even more serious than the cash for questions scandal, which caused the Commons to clean up its act in the Nineties.

“There is a clear legal precedent, established by Mr Justice Buckley in 1992, for the prosecution of a Member of Parliament for the common law offence of bribery in the case against Harry Greenway MP. Members of Parliament, including members of the Lords, should not be above the law. It should apply equally to all of us.”