MPs fight expenses trial bid

THREE former Labour MPs accused of fiddling their expenses have gone to the highest court in the land in a final attempt to avoid criminal trials.

Former Livingston MP Jim Devine, David Chaytor and Elliot Morley, who deny theft by false accounting, claim that any investigation into their expenses claims and the imposition of any sanctions "should lie within the hands of parliament".

Nigel Pleming QC, representing Chaytor and Devine, told a panel of nine Supreme Court Justices that the parliamentary expenses scheme was part of proceedings in the House.

As such, the men are protected by parliamentary privilege.

Lord Pannick QC, representing the Crown Prosecution Service, will argue that parliamentary privilege or immunity from criminal prosecution has never been attached to ordinary criminal activities by MPs.