UK: Lord Watson claimed expenses while on early release from prison

A Labour-supporting peer jailed for arson has claimed thousands of pounds in taxpayer-funded expenses while on early release from prison, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Lord Watson, a former Labour MP, was jailed for 16 months in September 2005 after setting fire to curtains in a hotel during a drunken incident.

However, he was released from prison early in May 2006 and has since claimed up to £308 a day in House of Lords expenses while on probation.

The disclosure will add to the growing pressure for Lords reform to stop convicted criminals and those found to have broken Parliamentary rules from continuing to sit as peers.

Since leaving prison, Lord Watson has claimed a total of about £100,000 in expenses despite voting on only about a quarter of the days he was attending. He has spoken only five times in the past year and has not put down a single written question.

The peer is also a director of a Scottish-based public-affairs company offering "parliamentary monitoring" services. His profile on the firm's website boasts he is a "regular attender at the House of Lords".

In the wake of the cash-for-laws scandal, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, has pledged to introduce new laws to strip peerages from those convicted of a criminal offence.

The new laws were seen as being targeted at Jeffrey Archer, the former Conservative jailed for perjury, and Conrad Black, the former owner of the Daily Telegraph jailed in America for fraud.

However, it has now emerged that Lord Watson is thought to be the only peer to have continued benefiting from his peerage. Lord Archer has not formally attended the Lords since his imprisonment and Lord Black is still in jail.

Despite being expelled from the Labour Party after his conviction, Lord Watson is one of Labour's staunchest supporters in the Lords.

Lords are able to claim more than £80 a day plus an overnight allowance of more than £165 simply for signing in each day. Unlike the House of Commons, expenses are automatically paid and do not require receipts.

Lord Watson was a Labour MP from 1989 to 1997. He received a life peerage from Tony Blair after leaving the Commons. He also became a member of the Scottish Parliament, although he resigned this position after his arrest.

He was jailed for 16 months after admitting a charge of wilful fire-raising. The peer was caught on CCTV setting fire to a curtain in the reception of an Edinburgh hotel following the Scottish Politician of the Year awards. The judge said that he had committed a "dangerous crime" and said that the large amount of alcohol he had consumed "neither excuses nor fully explains" the peer's behaviour.

It is currently virtually impossible to expel peers as it requires a specific act of Parliament. In contrast, MPs who are sentenced for more than a year in prison automatically lose their right to sit in the Commons.

Lord Watson was unavailable for comment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4448404/Labour-supporting-peer-Lord-Watson-claimed-expenses-while-on-early-release-from-prison.html

Fucking parasite!

UK: Lord Watson claimed expenses while on early release from prison

UK: Lord Watson claimed expenses while on early release from prison

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