Elliot Morley faces jail after admitting MPs' expenses fraud

Former Labour environment minister pleads guilty to fraudulently claiming more than £30,000 in expenses

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• Caroline Davies
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 7 April 2011 16.31 BST
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Elliot Morley, a former MP for Scunthorpe County, initially claimed his bogus expenses claims were the result of 'sloppy accounting'. Photograph: John Giles/PA
The former Labour minister Elliot Morley has pleaded guilty to dishonestly claiming more than £30,000 in parliamentary expenses, including claims for payments on a mortgage he had already paid off. The former MP for Scunthorpe County entered his plea during a brief appearance at Southwark crown court in London, where his trial had been due to start on Monday. He faces a custodial sentence. Morley, 58, was charged with two counts of false accounting, totalling £32,000, in relation to claims against his home in Winterton, near Scunthorpe, between 2004 and 2007. He was accused of claiming £16,800 in interest payments for a mortgage which had been paid off 18 months earlier, and taking £15,200 in claims by inflating the amount he was paying. The former environment minister, from 2003 to 2006, and one of Labour's most eminent voices on green issues, had publicly apologised and repaid the money, blaming "sloppy accounting". In March 2010, a hearing at Westminster magistrates court was told he would deny the charges. Morley was sacked as Gordon Brown's climate change adviser and suspended from the parliamentary Labour party after allegations over his expenses emerged. He announced he would step down from his seat, saying he did not want to undermine the strong position Labour had in his constituency in the runup to the general election. He had referred his claims to the parliamentary standards commissioner, John Lyon, to demonstrate there was "no intent" to overclaim. He said in his resignation statement: "I have never tried to duck responsibility for my mistake and have repaid the amount in full. I understand people's anger over the whole issue of MPs' expenses and their frustration. For those who condemn me I would simply ask to be allowed the opportunity to present my case." According to the indictment, he filed 19 claims forms stating he was paying £800 a month in mortgage interest between April 2004 and February 2006, "when in fact he was paying a lesser amount". He also filed 21 claims forms for £800 a month in mortgage interest between March 2006 and November 2007, "when in fact the mortgage had been redeemed". Morley, a former teacher, was sent for trial after the supreme court in December dismissed the legal argument that the case was covered by parliamentary privilege. Together with David Chaytor, 61, the former Labour MP for Bury North, and Jim Devine, 56, former Labour MP for Livingston, he had claimed any investigation into expenses should be heard by parliament and not the criminal courts. In a statement at Westminster magistrates court 2010, the three said they "unequivocally and steadfastly maintain their innocence of the charges against them". Chaytor was jailed for 18 months in January after admitting to claiming £18,350 in bogus rent and IT payments. Devine, the only MP to stand trial, was convicted by a jury in February of false claims for cleaning and printing work totalling £8,385 and sentenced to 16 months in jail last week. Eric Illsley, 55, the former Labour MP for Barnsley Central, who pleaded guilty to dishonestly claiming £14,000 relating to insurance, repairs, utility bills and council tax at his second home, was jailed for a year in February Morley's guilty plea marks an inauspicious end to a political career that saw the avid birdwatcher elevated to a ministerial post at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when Labour came to power in 1997. In this role he handled the controversies over foxhunting and EU fishing quotas, as well as the government's response to the devastating 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak. He was promoted to minister for the environment in 2003 and helped launch the government's anti-coastal erosion programme. In 2005, Morley, former teacher, was named climate change minister and described by one newspaper as having "the most impressive green credentials of any Labour minister", before leaving government in a 2006 reshuffle. His case was adjourned for sentencing.