Neo-Guido took on Mark Pack of LibDemVoice last night on the BBC News Channel to discuss why Laws was dished out the humiliating and potentially career ending punishment:

One thing really stands out in the Parliamentary Commissioners report:

“In July 2007, Mr Laws and his landlord moved to a second London property. This was financed in part by a gift of £99,000 from Mr Laws. Mr Laws remortgaged his Somerset property to provide this sum.”

Laws “gifted” the £99,000 to his boyfriend. Effectively he put up part of the deposit. Of course if he had an ongoing interest in the property he would not have been able to claim for the “rent”. Laws deliberately and knowingly played the system to allow him to claim rent to pay for a property in which he would have had an interest if his £99,000 share hadn’t been technically written off as a “gift”. No amount of spin that he could have saved the taxpayer money if he had lived elsewhere can disguise the fact this stinks. A seven day suspension is a humiliation, but Laws, Grender and Pack etc should be glad it’s wasn’t seven months at Her Majesty’s Pleasure…