Ealing Tory Peer To Appear in Court

Following expenses investigation

The Ealing based Conservative peer Lord Taylor of Warwick, is  to appear in court accused of false accounting.

He has been charged in relation to alleged dishonest claims he made for £11,000 in living costs.

He is the sixth parliamentarian to be accused of fraud in relation to expenses.

Three former Labour MPs - Eliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine - current Labour MP Eric Illsley and Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield have also been charged with offences under the Theft Act.

They have all proclaimed their innocence and said they will fight the charges.

Lord Taylor, who became the Conservatives' first black member of the Lords in 1996, has resigned the party whip.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it believed there was "sufficient evidence" to charge Lord Taylor following a police investigation and that it was in the "public interest" to do so.

He is alleged to have dishonestly submitted claims for overnight subsistence and car mileage on six occasions in 2006 and 2007.

He will appear before London magistrates next month.

16th July 2010