Petition "Parliamentary privilege" must not be used to keep members above the law

Despite having been jailed for fiddling expenses in 2011, a new CPS case of false accounting against sitting Tory peer Lord Hannigfield recently collapsed when Justice McCreath ruled he couldn’t be prosecuted for falsely claiming attendance allowance – on the grounds of “parliamentary privilege”!

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This taints the reputation of both Houses, makes a mockery of reforms following the "expenses" scandal and sets the dangerous precedent of placing parliamentarians' expenses beyond public scrutiny or prosecution.

Therefore, we call on both Houses to debate and reform the practical application of "parliamentary privilege" in cases of prosecutable false accounting or fraud. Also, along with this, members subsequently convicted in the courts should automatically be deprived of their seats/titles.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

13 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 13 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

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10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Date closed 15 February 2017
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