Parliamentarian may face charges

Another parliamentarian is facing the possibility of prosecution after police handed a file relating to alleged expenses abuse to prosecutors.

The announcement came as four Liberal Democrat MPs were ordered to apologise and pay back thousands of pounds in "windfall" payments which they received for giving up cheap rents on their taxpayer-funded second homes.

Scotland Yard said the file was given to the Crown Prosecution Service on Friday afternoon. It was the seventh to be completed and sent to prosecutors by detectives at the Metropolitan Police's specialist crime wing. The identity of the politician involved has not been confirmed.

Three Labour MPs and a Conservative peer appeared in court nine days ago accused of theft by false accounting. MPs David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine, along with Lord Hanningfield, insisted their case should be dealt with by Parliament's authorities instead.

Labour peers Baroness Uddin and Lord Clarke of Hampstead have been told they will not be prosecuted.

The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee said Liberal Democrats John Barrett, Sandra Gidley, Paul Holmes and Richard Younger-Ross had shown "serious misjudgment" in keeping the money themselves rather than returning it to the public purse.

Two other Lib Dem MPs, former leader Sir Menzies Campbell and former deputy leader Sir Alan Beith, were also rebuked for "lesser misjudgments" but face no other action.

The cases involving the Lib Dems concerned flats which they rented in Dolphin Square in Westminster - a block that has long been popular with MPs because of its close proximity to Parliament.

In 2005, the block - which had previously been owned by a non-profit-making trust - was acquired by new owners who offered lump sum payments to tenants who were prepared to give up their entitlement to cheap rents.

Mr Barrett, Ms Gidley, Mr Holmes and Mr Younger-Ross all pocketed the payments and then moved into the other flats in Dolphin Square or nearby for similar or higher rents which they continued to claim on expenses.