The BBC is reporting that Brian Binley will not repay his expense claims even if asked to by David Cameron. The Tory MP is under pressure after renting a flat from his own company.
This raises the interesting prospect of Binley losing the party whip, which is the ultimate punishment if he is ordered by the party’s scrutiny panel to pay the money back and refuses to do so.
Meanwhile on the Labour side, Jim Devine is kicking up a fuss over his own defenestration by the party’s sinister-sounding “star chamber”. (Which he has labelled a ‘kangaroo court’). He is threatening to walk away from his seat, raising the prospect of another by-election in a seat which Labour is not guaranteed to keep.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey