David Laws
Encyclopedia
David Anthony Laws is a British
politician
. He is Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament
for Yeovil and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury
.
After a career in investment banking
, Laws became an economic adviser and later Director of Policy and Research for the Liberal Democrats
. In 2001, he was elected as the MP for Yeovil, the seat previously represented by former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown
.
In 2004, he co-edited The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism, followed by Britain After Blair in 2006. After the 2010 general election, Laws led negotiations for the Liberal Democrats which resulted in a coalition with the Conservative Party
. He then briefly held the post of Chief Secretary to the Treasury
, but resigned on 29 May 2010.
He is currently the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development (Apgood)
, Surrey
, the only son of a Conservative voting
father who was a banker, and a Labour voting
mother. He would later joke that he was the "perfect fusion" as a Liberal Democrat.
Laws was educated at independent school
s: Woburn Hill School in the town of Weybridge
in Surrey
, from 1974 to 1979; and St George's College
, a Roman Catholic day school in the same town, from 1979 to 1984. Regarded as a renowned speaker who revelled in intellectual argument, he won the national Observer Schools Mace Debating Championship in 1984.
Laws graduated in 1987 from King's College, Cambridge
, with a double first in economics.
, becoming a Vice President at JP Morgan from 1987 to 1992 and then Managing Director, being the Head of US Dollar and Sterling Treasuries at Barclays de Zoete Wedd.
He left in 1994, to take up the role of economic adviser to the Liberal Democrats, on a salary of £15,000 per year. He unsuccessfully contested Folkestone and Hythe in 1997, against Conservative
Home Secretary
Michael Howard
. From 1997–99 he was the Liberal Democrats's Director of Policy and Research.
Following the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, Laws played a leading advisory role in the negotiation of the Scottish Parliament coalition
agreement with Labour, as the UK party's then Policy Director.
Laws' wealth is estimated as £
1-2m.
under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown. When Ashdown resigned the leadership of the party and then decided to stand down as an MP, Laws was selected for his seat. Both would walk the constituency in what ex-Army man Ashdown describes as Mufti
attire; but on election day, Laws returned to his preferred attire of tailored suit
s.
On his election to parliament, Laws became a member of the Treasury Committee
, and in November 2001 he was appointed the party's deputy defence spokesperson. A year he later took up the position of Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury and launched "a spending review".
He was the co-editor of the Orange Book, published in 2004. In 2005, he was appointed the Liberal Democrats' Work and Pensions Spokesman, a position in which he has been highly critical of the government's handling of the Child Support Agency and flaws in the tax credits system. He subsequently served his party as the Liberal Democrat Children, Schools and Families
spokesman.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne
offered Laws, who is generally seen, along with other Orange Book authors, as being on the more economically liberal end of the Lib Dems in terms of economic policy, a seat in the Conservative Shadow Cabinet
, but was rebuffed, with Laws saying "I am not a Tory, and if I merely wanted a fast track to a top job, I would have acted on this instinct a long time ago."
Following the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell
on 15 October 2007, he announced that he would not be a candidate for the leadership of the party.
Laws was one of five Liberal Democrats to obtain Cabinet positions when the coalition was formed, becoming Chief Secretary to the Treasury
, tasked with cutting spending in order to reduce the UK deficit. He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor
on 13 May 2010.
His predecessor Liam Byrne
, on leaving his position as Chief Secretary to the Treasury following the change of UK government in May 2010, left him a note that stated, "Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards - and good luck! Liam". Byrne said the letter was meant as a private joke.
Outlining spending cuts in May 2010, Laws said Child Trust Fund
payments would be axed by January 2011. He said halting these payments to newborns from the end of the year - and the top-up payments - would save £520m. Mr Laws said: "The years of public sector plenty are over, but the more decisively we act the quicker and stronger we can come through these tough times." He said that "We also promise to cut with care, we are going to be a progressive government even in these tough times." Iain Martin
of the Wall Street Journal published an article on Laws's early performance and described him as a "potential future prime minister
"
stated that Laws had claimed more than £40,000 on his expenses in the form of second home costs, from 2004 to late 2009, during which time he had been renting rooms at properties owned by what the newspaper claimed to be his "secret lover" and "long-term partner", James Lundie. They were not in a civil partnership. The Daily Telegraph also said that it had not intended to reveal his sexuality
, but that Laws had himself done so, in a public statement shortly before the newspaper's publication of the story. Lundie is a former Liberal Democrat Press officer and now works for the Political Affairs team of public relations
and lobbying firm, Edelman
.
According to the Telegraph, Laws claimed between £700 and £950 a month rent between 2004 and 2007, plus typically £100 to £200 a month for maintenance, to sub-let a room in a flat owned and lived in by his boyfriend in Kennington
, South London
. After the flat was sold for a profit of £193,000 in 2007, Lundie bought a nearby house for £510,000. Laws then began claiming rent for the “second bedroom” in this property, at a cost of £920 a month, until September 2009. Laws, whose main home is in Chard
in his Yeovil constituency, and has a holiday home in Provence, France; then began renting another flat. This flat was not owned by Lundie, who remained at the Kennington house. Since 2006, parliamentary rules have banned MPs from “leasing accommodation from... a partner.”
A spokesman for Prime Minister
David Cameron
said, "The Prime Minister has been made aware of this situation and he agrees with David Laws's decision to refer himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
."
Laws resigned as Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 29 May 2010, stating that he could not carry on working on the Comprehensive Spending Review while dealing with the private and public implications of the revelations. He also stated that his reason for the way he had claimed expenses had been to keep private details of his sexuality and that he had not benefited financially from this misdirection. Accepting his resignation, Cameron said, "I hope that, in time, you will be able to serve again." He was succeeded by Danny Alexander
, who had initially been appointed Secretary of State for Scotland
.
In May 2011 the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards reported that Laws was guilty of breaking six rules with regard to MPs' expenses, but that he had not intended to benefit himself or Lundie directly. In addition to finding against Laws with regard to the payment of rent to his boyfriend, the investigation had also found irregularities in payments for phone bills and building work. After being found guilty Laws was suspended from the House of Commons
for 7 days backed by MPs in a House of Commons vote on 16 May 2011. A Labour MP, Thomas Docherty, asked New Scotland Yard to mount a criminal investigation into the matter. Docherty remarked "If anyone else had fraudulently obtained £50,000 and their defence was that they had done it to protect their privacy, then they would rightfully have had the book thrown at them."
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards accepted that Laws’s motivation was privacy and not financial benefit, and both the Commissioner and the Committee accept that his claims would have been “considerably more” if he had claimed in accordance with the rules. The Inquiry received evidence from Laws that his claims would have been almost £30,000 higher over 2004-2010 if he had made these against his Somerset home, as the Commissioner has ruled that he should. There was therefore no loss to the taxpayer from the breach in rules. The commissioner also stated "I have no evidence that Mr Laws made his claims with the intention of benefiting himself or his partner in conscious breach of the rules."
Olly Grender
, who was the Liberal Democrat's Communications Director in 1997, while reporting in the Statesman noted the irony that "If he had allocated his constituency home as his second home he would have still been in the cabinet, having claimed £30,000 more."
" with a belief in free trade and small government. In initial debates on the spending cuts, Conservative MP for Gainsborough
, Edward Leigh
described Laws as heeding to "stern, unbending Gladstonian Liberalism
". Laws added that he believed in "not only Gladstonian Liberalism, but liberalism tinged with the social liberalism
about which my party is so passionate."
Laws is a social liberal. Around the time of the 2010 general election, it was alleged that Laws told a Conservative colleague that he would have become a Conservative politician had it not been for the Tory party's general "illiberalism and Euroscepticism" and particularly the Thatcher government
's introduction of Section 28
, which forbade local authorities from "promot[ing] homosexuality". According to former MP Evan Harris
, one of Laws' former colleagues, "Laws is a fully social liberal on equality, abortion, faith schools, religion and the state. He is also very sensible on discrimination issues and sex education."
Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce
described Laws as "an unreconstructed 19th century Liberal. He believes in free trade and small government. Government should do only the jobs only government can do. There's no point in having a large public sector if the users of the public services are getting poorer."
|-
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
politician
Politics of the United Kingdom
The politics of the United Kingdom takes place within the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the Monarch is the head of state and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government...
. He is Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Yeovil and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the third most senior ministerial position in HM Treasury, after the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer . In recent years, the office holder has usually been given a junior position in the British Cabinet...
.
After a career in investment banking
Investment banking
An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities...
, Laws became an economic adviser and later Director of Policy and Research for the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
. In 2001, he was elected as the MP for Yeovil, the seat previously represented by former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown
Paddy Ashdown
Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, KBE, PC , usually known as Paddy Ashdown, is a British politician and diplomat....
.
In 2004, he co-edited The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism, followed by Britain After Blair in 2006. After the 2010 general election, Laws led negotiations for the Liberal Democrats which resulted in a coalition with the Conservative Party
Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement
The Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement was a policy document drawn up following the 2010 general election in the United Kingdom...
. He then briefly held the post of Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the third most senior ministerial position in HM Treasury, after the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer . In recent years, the office holder has usually been given a junior position in the British Cabinet...
, but resigned on 29 May 2010.
He is currently the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development (Apgood)
Early life and education
Laws was born in FarnhamFarnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, the only son of a Conservative voting
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
father who was a banker, and a Labour voting
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
mother. He would later joke that he was the "perfect fusion" as a Liberal Democrat.
Laws was educated at independent school
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
s: Woburn Hill School in the town of Weybridge
Weybridge
Weybridge is a town in the Elmbridge district of Surrey in South East England. It is bounded to the north by the River Thames at the mouth of the River Wey, from which it gets its name...
in Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, from 1974 to 1979; and St George's College
St George's College, Weybridge
St George's College, Weybridge is an independent mixed Roman Catholic co-educational day school in Surrey, England. It had historically been an all-boys' boarding school. The first girls entered the 6th Form in the 1960s and the school decided to take girls at age 11 in 1998...
, a Roman Catholic day school in the same town, from 1979 to 1984. Regarded as a renowned speaker who revelled in intellectual argument, he won the national Observer Schools Mace Debating Championship in 1984.
Laws graduated in 1987 from King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
, with a double first in economics.
Career
Laws went into investment bankingInvestment banking
An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities...
, becoming a Vice President at JP Morgan from 1987 to 1992 and then Managing Director, being the Head of US Dollar and Sterling Treasuries at Barclays de Zoete Wedd.
He left in 1994, to take up the role of economic adviser to the Liberal Democrats, on a salary of £15,000 per year. He unsuccessfully contested Folkestone and Hythe in 1997, against Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
. From 1997–99 he was the Liberal Democrats's Director of Policy and Research.
Following the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, Laws played a leading advisory role in the negotiation of the Scottish Parliament coalition
Government of the 1st Scottish Parliament
The Executive of the 1st Scottish Parliament was formed following the 1999 election.- Dewar government :The Dewar government was formed by a coalition of Labour and the Liberal Democrats...
agreement with Labour, as the UK party's then Policy Director.
Laws' wealth is estimated as £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
1-2m.
Parliamentary career
Laws had joined the Liberal Democrat back office at the same time as Nick CleggNick Clegg
Nicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister...
under the leadership of Paddy Ashdown. When Ashdown resigned the leadership of the party and then decided to stand down as an MP, Laws was selected for his seat. Both would walk the constituency in what ex-Army man Ashdown describes as Mufti
Mufti (dress)
for more information see civilians Mufti, or civies/civvies , refers to ordinary clothes, especially when worn by one who normally wears, or has long worn, a military or other uniform.-Origin:...
attire; but on election day, Laws returned to his preferred attire of tailored suit
Suit (clothing)
In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits are the most common style of Western suit, originating in the United Kingdom as country wear...
s.
On his election to parliament, Laws became a member of the Treasury Committee
Treasury Committee
The House of Commons Treasury Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
, and in November 2001 he was appointed the party's deputy defence spokesperson. A year he later took up the position of Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury and launched "a spending review".
He was the co-editor of the Orange Book, published in 2004. In 2005, he was appointed the Liberal Democrats' Work and Pensions Spokesman, a position in which he has been highly critical of the government's handling of the Child Support Agency and flaws in the tax credits system. He subsequently served his party as the Liberal Democrat Children, Schools and Families
Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families
The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families is a Cabinet minister in the United Kingdom. The post was created on 28 June 2007 after the disbanding of the Department for Education and Skills by Gordon Brown. The first Secretary of State was Ed Balls, a former treasury aide to Brown...
spokesman.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne
George Osborne
George Gideon Oliver Osborne, MP is a British Conservative politician. He is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a role to which he was appointed in May 2010, and has been the Member of Parliament for Tatton since 2001.Osborne is part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in...
offered Laws, who is generally seen, along with other Orange Book authors, as being on the more economically liberal end of the Lib Dems in terms of economic policy, a seat in the Conservative Shadow Cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...
, but was rebuffed, with Laws saying "I am not a Tory, and if I merely wanted a fast track to a top job, I would have acted on this instinct a long time ago."
Following the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell
Menzies Campbell
Sir Walter Menzies "Ming" Campbell, CBE, QC, MP is a British Liberal Democrat politician and advocate, and a retired sprinter. He is the Member of Parliament for North East Fife, and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.Campbell held the British record...
on 15 October 2007, he announced that he would not be a candidate for the leadership of the party.
Government
Following the 2010 general election, Laws was one of the main negotiators for the Liberal Democrats, part of the team of four that negotiated a deal to go into a governing coalition with the Conservatives. His account of the coalition's formation was published in November 2010 as 22 Days in May.Laws was one of five Liberal Democrats to obtain Cabinet positions when the coalition was formed, becoming Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the third most senior ministerial position in HM Treasury, after the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer . In recent years, the office holder has usually been given a junior position in the British Cabinet...
, tasked with cutting spending in order to reduce the UK deficit. He was appointed as a Privy Counsellor
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
on 13 May 2010.
His predecessor Liam Byrne
Liam Byrne
Liam Dominic Byrne is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill since 2004, and was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2009 to 2010 before being appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on 20 January 2011.-Early...
, on leaving his position as Chief Secretary to the Treasury following the change of UK government in May 2010, left him a note that stated, "Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards - and good luck! Liam". Byrne said the letter was meant as a private joke.
Outlining spending cuts in May 2010, Laws said Child Trust Fund
Child Trust Fund
A Child Trust Fund is a long-term savings or investment account for children in the United Kingdom. New accounts cannot be created but existing accounts can receive new money...
payments would be axed by January 2011. He said halting these payments to newborns from the end of the year - and the top-up payments - would save £520m. Mr Laws said: "The years of public sector plenty are over, but the more decisively we act the quicker and stronger we can come through these tough times." He said that "We also promise to cut with care, we are going to be a progressive government even in these tough times." Iain Martin
Iain Martin
Iain James Martin is a Scottish journalist and blogger. He has worked as a reporter for the Sunday Times Scotland , as political editor of the Scotland on Sunday , political editor of The Scotsman , deputy editor of the Scotland on Sunday , editor of The Scotsman , editor of Scotland on Sunday...
of the Wall Street Journal published an article on Laws's early performance and described him as a "potential future prime minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
"
Expenses scandal and suspension from Parliament
On 28 May 2010, The Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
stated that Laws had claimed more than £40,000 on his expenses in the form of second home costs, from 2004 to late 2009, during which time he had been renting rooms at properties owned by what the newspaper claimed to be his "secret lover" and "long-term partner", James Lundie. They were not in a civil partnership. The Daily Telegraph also said that it had not intended to reveal his sexuality
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, but that Laws had himself done so, in a public statement shortly before the newspaper's publication of the story. Lundie is a former Liberal Democrat Press officer and now works for the Political Affairs team of public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
and lobbying firm, Edelman
Edelman (firm)
Edelman is a global public relations firm with consumer, finance, healthcare, technology and industrial practices. It employs over 3,600 people in 53 offices around the globe. Edelman was founded in 1952 by Daniel J. Edelman and is today led by his son President & CEO Richard Edelman...
.
According to the Telegraph, Laws claimed between £700 and £950 a month rent between 2004 and 2007, plus typically £100 to £200 a month for maintenance, to sub-let a room in a flat owned and lived in by his boyfriend in Kennington
Kennington
Kennington is a district of South London, England, mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, although part of the area is within the London Borough of Southwark....
, South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
. After the flat was sold for a profit of £193,000 in 2007, Lundie bought a nearby house for £510,000. Laws then began claiming rent for the “second bedroom” in this property, at a cost of £920 a month, until September 2009. Laws, whose main home is in Chard
Chard, Somerset
Chard is a town and civil parish in the Somerset county of England. It lies on the A30 road near the Devon border, south west of Yeovil. The parish has a population of approximately 12,000 and, at an elevation of , it is the southernmost and highest town in Somerset...
in his Yeovil constituency, and has a holiday home in Provence, France; then began renting another flat. This flat was not owned by Lundie, who remained at the Kennington house. Since 2006, parliamentary rules have banned MPs from “leasing accommodation from... a partner.”
A spokesman for Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
said, "The Prime Minister has been made aware of this situation and he agrees with David Laws's decision to refer himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an officer of the British House of Commons.He or she is appointed by a Resolution of the House of Commons and works a four-day week.- Tasks :...
."
Laws resigned as Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 29 May 2010, stating that he could not carry on working on the Comprehensive Spending Review while dealing with the private and public implications of the revelations. He also stated that his reason for the way he had claimed expenses had been to keep private details of his sexuality and that he had not benefited financially from this misdirection. Accepting his resignation, Cameron said, "I hope that, in time, you will be able to serve again." He was succeeded by Danny Alexander
Danny Alexander
Daniel Grian Alexander is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been Chief Secretary to the Treasury since 2010. He has been the Member of Parliament for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey constituency since 2005....
, who had initially been appointed Secretary of State for Scotland
Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
.
In May 2011 the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards reported that Laws was guilty of breaking six rules with regard to MPs' expenses, but that he had not intended to benefit himself or Lundie directly. In addition to finding against Laws with regard to the payment of rent to his boyfriend, the investigation had also found irregularities in payments for phone bills and building work. After being found guilty Laws was suspended from the House of Commons
Suspension from the UK parliament
In the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Members of Parliament can be suspended from sitting in the House of Commons by the Speaker for "disorderly conduct"....
for 7 days backed by MPs in a House of Commons vote on 16 May 2011. A Labour MP, Thomas Docherty, asked New Scotland Yard to mount a criminal investigation into the matter. Docherty remarked "If anyone else had fraudulently obtained £50,000 and their defence was that they had done it to protect their privacy, then they would rightfully have had the book thrown at them."
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards accepted that Laws’s motivation was privacy and not financial benefit, and both the Commissioner and the Committee accept that his claims would have been “considerably more” if he had claimed in accordance with the rules. The Inquiry received evidence from Laws that his claims would have been almost £30,000 higher over 2004-2010 if he had made these against his Somerset home, as the Commissioner has ruled that he should. There was therefore no loss to the taxpayer from the breach in rules. The commissioner also stated "I have no evidence that Mr Laws made his claims with the intention of benefiting himself or his partner in conscious breach of the rules."
Olly Grender
Olly Grender
Olly Grender is a media pundit and former Head of Communications for the Liberal Democrats.After working as a researcher for the Liberal Democrats, Grender became a speech-writer to Paddy Ashdown in the late 1980s, and was the party's Head of Communications at the 1997 General Election. She then...
, who was the Liberal Democrat's Communications Director in 1997, while reporting in the Statesman noted the irony that "If he had allocated his constituency home as his second home he would have still been in the cabinet, having claimed £30,000 more."
Political views
Laws has been described as "a complete liberalLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
" with a belief in free trade and small government. In initial debates on the spending cuts, Conservative MP for Gainsborough
Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Gainsborough is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
, Edward Leigh
Edward Leigh
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh is a British Conservative politician. He has sat in the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Gainsborough in Lincolnshire since 1997, and for its predecessor constituency of Gainsborough and Horncastle between 1983 and 1997...
described Laws as heeding to "stern, unbending Gladstonian Liberalism
Gladstonian Liberalism
Gladstonian Liberalism is a political doctrine named after the British Victorian Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstonian Liberalism consisted of limited government expenditure and low taxation whilst making sure government had balanced budgets...
". Laws added that he believed in "not only Gladstonian Liberalism, but liberalism tinged with the social liberalism
Social liberalism
Social liberalism is the belief that liberalism should include social justice. It differs from classical liberalism in that it believes the legitimate role of the state includes addressing economic and social issues such as unemployment, health care, and education while simultaneously expanding...
about which my party is so passionate."
Laws is a social liberal. Around the time of the 2010 general election, it was alleged that Laws told a Conservative colleague that he would have become a Conservative politician had it not been for the Tory party's general "illiberalism and Euroscepticism" and particularly the Thatcher government
Premiership of Margaret Thatcher
The Premiership of Margaret Thatcher began on 4 May 1979, with a mandate to reverse the UK's economic decline and to reduce the role of the state in the economy...
's introduction of Section 28
Section 28
Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 caused the controversial addition of Section 2A to the Local Government Act 1986 , enacted on 24 May 1988 and repealed on 21 June 2000 in Scotland, and on 18 November 2003 in the rest of Great Britain by section 122 of the Local Government Act 2003...
, which forbade local authorities from "promot[ing] homosexuality". According to former MP Evan Harris
Evan Harris
Evan Leslie Harris is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Oxford West and Abingdon from 1997 to 2010, losing his seat in the 2010 general election by 176 votes to Conservative Nicola Blackwood....
, one of Laws' former colleagues, "Laws is a fully social liberal on equality, abortion, faith schools, religion and the state. He is also very sensible on discrimination issues and sex education."
Liberal Democrat MP Malcolm Bruce
Malcolm Bruce
Malcolm Gray Bruce, MP is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Gordon. He has been the chairman of the International Development Select Committee since 2005.-Early life:...
described Laws as "an unreconstructed 19th century Liberal. He believes in free trade and small government. Government should do only the jobs only government can do. There's no point in having a large public sector if the users of the public services are getting poorer."
External links
- David Laws MP official constituency website
- Profile at the Liberal Democrats
- Yeovil Liberal Democrats
- Article archive at The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- Profile: David Laws, BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 17 October 2007
|-