Peer facing sleaze allegation claimed £170,000 expenses

Published on Tuesday 27 January 2009 20:59

THE Scottish peer embroiled in allegations of sleaze has claimed more than £500 a day in expenses since he joined the House of Lords, The Scotsman can reveal.

Lord Moonie has claimed 170,839 in subsistence allowances and travel and office costs since being elevated to the Lords in July 2005 – 509 for each of the 335 days he has attended the upper chamber.

The peer was the Labour MP for Kirkcaldy between 1987 and 2005 before standing down, allowing Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, to switch from a neighbouring constituency to the new seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, formed after boundary changes.

The revelations come as Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said that peers convicted of a criminal offence and facing a prison sentence should be thrown out of the House of Lords and lose their title.

He said: "The most the accused peers will have to do if the Lords' investigation finds them guilty is to apologise. That is why I am also now calling on the government to introduce urgent new legislation … so that peers found guilty of wrongdoing are expelled from parliament."

Last night, the Metropolitan Police confirmed it was considering whether to launch an inquiry into alleged bribery after a complaint from the Lib Dems.

Lord Moonie, a defence minister in Tony Blair's government from 2000-3, came under further pressure when it emerged yesterday that he had given a parliamentary pass to someone stripped of such access because of links to the arms industry. He was one of four Labour peers accused in a Sunday newspaper of being willing to amend laws for fees of up to 120,000. Lord Moonie is alleged to have told undercover reporters that he could help for an annual fee of 30,000.

He and Lords Truscott, Taylor of Blackburn and Snape, will give evidence to an internal Lords inquiry this week. Lord Taylor, who was taped saying that 100,000 in fees he received from other companies was "cheap" in return for his efforts, claimed nearly 400,000 over seven years.

Lord Moonie, who denies wrongdoing, insists that Robin Ashby, who benefited from the pass, was not a lobbyist.

He said: "It is all absolutely above board. I have done nothing wrong or reprehensible."

Lord Moonie did not return The Scotsman's calls yesterday. But Labour figures from Kirkcaldy defended their former MP, saying he was a "man of honour".

Judy Hamilton, a Labour councillor in Kirkcaldy, said Lord Moonie was "very highly regarded locally", and added: "He was a very good MP, a person who is still very well known in the constituency. People speak very highly of him. I see him as a man of integrity. I don't believe these allegations at all."

Kay Carrington, a fellow councillor, said: "I always found him to be very upstanding. He has been in politics for so many years, I would find it quite astonishing if he wanted to blot his copybook now he is in the Lords."

Alex Rowley, leader of the Labour opposition group on Fife Council, said he had worked with Lord Moonie in their former roles as council leader and constituency MP.

He said: "I knew him as an MP. I have never had any contact with him since he gave up as an MP. He is not involved in Fife Labour politics as far as I know."

Mr Rowley, a former general secretary of the Scottish Labour Party, added: "More generally, it's not good for politics, at a time when trust in politicians is generally low anyway.

"Something like this coming up continues to raise questions about why politicians, and Lords, are there."

PROFILE

LEWIS Moonie, 61, entered Parliament in 1987 after four years on Fife Regional Council. He was given a number of front-bench responsibilities during Labour's years in opposition, but had to wait until 2000 to become a junior minister in the Ministry of Defence.

He was elevated to the Lords in July 2005 as Baron Moonie of Bennochy. In the Lords register of interests, he lists lobbying for Americium Developments, an Edinburgh-based firm, which pays him 35,000 to 40,000 a year. He is a paid director of AEA Technology and a non-executive director of Partygaming plc, an online firm. Lord Moonie is also a "non-parliamentary consultant" to three other firms.