St Albans-based peer named among politicians facing expenses prosecution

A LABOUR peer who lives in St Albans is one of six politicians who are understood to be facing criminal charges of fraud following the expenses scandal. Lord Clarke of Hampstead, 77, who lives in Orchard Drive, Park Street, admitted earlier this year that

A LABOUR peer who lives in St Albans is one of six politicians who are understood to be facing criminal charges of fraud following the expenses scandal.

Lord Clarke of Hampstead, 77, who lives in Orchard Drive, Park Street, admitted earlier this year that he had claimed �18,000 a year for overnight stays in London when he stayed with friends or went home.

He is named in a national newspaper today as one of six MPs and peers whose details are to be passed on to the Director of Public Prosecutions by detectives.

Lord Clarke, a former postman and trade unionist, admitted to the Sunday Times in June that he had claimed an allowance of up to �174 a night. He said he would try to make amends but had been sucked into the expenses system in the absence of a salary for members of the House of Lords.

Three Labour MPs, Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine as well as two other peers, Baroness Uddin and Lord Hanningfield also face prosecution over their expenses.