Expenses Fraud Ex-MP Freed From Jail

20 September 2011, 11:08 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Former environment minister and Scunthorpe MP Elliot Morley has been freed from prison after serving a quarter of his 16-month sentence for fiddling his parliamentary expenses.

Former environment minister and Scunthorpe MP Elliot Morley has been freed from prison after serving a quarter of his 16-month sentence for fiddling his parliamentary expenses.

Morley, who claimed more than £30,000 in bogus mortgage payments linked to his home in Winterton, near Scunthorpe, between 2004 and 2007, was released from Ford open prison, near Arundel, West Sussex, early this morning.

He joins three other former Labour MPs - David Chaytor, Eric Illsley and Jim Devine - and two former Tory peers - Lord Taylor and Lord Hanningfield - who have already been released after serving time behind bars for their role in the expenses scandal.

Emma Boon, campaign director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said the early release ``will do little to restore taxpayers' faith in politics after the expenses scandal.  Even if he is not a dangerous criminal, he and other MPs and peers convicted over fraudulent claims should have served more of their sentences to reflect the seriousness of their crimes,'' she said.