Ex-MP Chaytor jailed over expenses

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Ex-MP David Chayor has been jailed for 18 months over fraudulent expense claims. The BBC reports that:

“(Chaytor) submitted bogus invoices for IT consultancy work and claimed rent he never paid on homes owned by his family, the court was told.”

Sentencing him Mr Justice Saunders said the 2009 MPs’ expenses scandal had “shaken public confidence in the legislature and angered the public. These false claims were made in breach of the high degree of trust placed in MPs to only make legitimate claims.”

Chaytor could be released as early as May. Reacting to the news, the Labour Party said:

“David Chaytor had already been suspended from the Labour Party and following his custodial sentence he has now been excluded from the party.”