Brothel credit card threat to PM

A SCANDAL involving an MP over payments to prostitutes, which threatens Australia’s minority government, deepened yesterday when his former trade union asked police to investigate his union credit card bills.

The move by the Health Services Union increases the likelihood police will launch a criminal investigation into the union’s former boss Craig Thomson, now an MP, including payments to a Sydney brothel.

Thomson denies wrongdoing. But if charged with a criminal offence and found guilty, he would be forced to leave parliament, sparking a by-election that could bring down premier Julia Gillard’s Labour government, which has a one-seat majority.