Four MPs probed by police over expenses

FOUR MPs are being probed over potential expenses fraud – with prosecutors considering whether to charge one of them.

Scotland Yard has been investigating the allegations for two years without naming any of the individuals under suspicion.

The former parliamentary sleaze watchdog said voters had a right to know whether electoral candidates were being investigated.

‘They are innocent until proven guilty. But if there is sufficient evidence to refer it to the police then that is something people need to know,’ said Sir Alistair Graham, who led the Committee on Standards in Public Life from 2003 until 2007.

The Commons expenses regime has been tightened since a major scandal in 2009.

But the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, which polices the system, has come under fire for the refusal by its compliance officer to name MPs facing allegations.

Politicians have avoided identification because their cases were classed as ‘assessments’ rather than ‘investigations’.

Police said two of the latest four cases were referred to them by Ipsa – one in February 2016 and another that August. An Ipsa spokesman insisted it had not made referrals, merely ‘liaisons’.

According to Scotland Yard, the third of the four probes was triggered by concerns raised by two members of the public in February 2016.

An investigation was launched last January and a 50-year-old man was interviewed under caution in March. Prosecutors are now considering whether to bring charges against the individual, who is believed no longer to be an MP. A fourth investigation was sparked by a letter to the Met Commissioner in November 2016.