THREE former Labour MPs and a Conservative peer (member of the House of Lords) are set to stand trial over expenses fraud allegations after a judge ruled that parliamentary privilege did not protect them from prosecution. Justice Saunders said he could see “no logical, practical or moral justification for a claim for expenses being covered by privilege” and “no legal justification for it either”.

Rejecting arguments by the four men that they should be dealt with by parliament, he said “In my judgment, the conduct alleged against these defendants is not covered by parliamentary privilege and is triable in the crown court.”

Saunders granted the defendants — David Chaytor, Elliot Morley, and Jim Devine, all former Labour MPs, and Tory peer Lord Hanningfield — leave to appeal.

“The decision that I have had to make has not been easy,” said the judge, adding that privilege was that of parliament, not any individual member. “Therefore, even if the defendants had wished to waive privilege they could not have done so.”Saunders said parliament did not have an effective procedure of investigating and deciding criminal guilt, and the range of penalties available to it was “considerably smaller” than in the criminal courts.

He added that “neither house has sought to assert that these proceedings come within the jurisdiction of parliament. This is of particular significance as the privilege, if it exists, belongs to parliament and not the individual members”. Parliament had cooperated with both the police inquiry and the court, he said.

All four men deny charges of theft by false accounting. Chaytor, of Todmorden, Lancashire, the former MP for Bury North, is accused of falsely claiming rent on a London apartment he owned, falsely filing invoices for IT work and renting a property from his mother, against regulations.

Morley, of Winterton, North Lincolnshire, the former MP for Scunthorpe, is charged with falsely claiming interest payments towards a mortgage that he had already paid off. Devine, the former Livingston MP, of Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland, is accused of wrongly submitting two invoices for printing services and dishonestly claiming cleaning costs by submitting false invoices. Lord Hanningfield, of West Hanningfield faces six charges of making dishonest claims for travelling allowances.

— The Guardian, London