This resignation is a disaster for our public life, the coalition and the nation's finances

strapworld

Mr Forsyth, Thank you my sentiments exactly.

Damned disgrace, but as I said elsewhere the bigots have won.

Snowman

James, seconded. You right on his motives, you right on the loss.

His going was most likely because if he stayed his backers may have come up with stuff on others, higher up, I reckon.

Long the UK

What a disaster.

Have the British media elite a death wish?

Captain Christy

Quite! and to think we thought we had got rid of the Scots running ( or is it ruining ) our finances.

Kirsty Richards

No James you are wrong, he has not been hounded out of office, he has broken the rules. Simples. Or are you now saying that homosexuals should be allowed to get away with conning the taxpayer out of £40,000 for fear that sacking them will be accused of homophobia. If this was someone claiming housing benefit they would be up before a judge, as the adverts say no ifs no buts.

George

I'm sorry, but buried deep in the Daily Telegraph story was the revelation that he claimed high round numbers for his utility bills, until the rule came in that any claims over £25 had to be accompanied by a receipt, at which point his utility bill claims suddenly and mysteriously dropped - from £100 plus to £37 in the first instance. David Laws was not a victim of homophobia, he was simply caught with his hands in the till. We know he's independently wealthy - and now we know how he got to be.

Edmund Jerk

This is ridiculous: Laws is one of the best things about this pantomime horse of a coalition. Now that the only true liberal is gone from the cabinet who do we have left from the Lib-Dems?:

Vince Cable (a redistributive City bashing anti-liberal) Chris Huhne (Global Warming fanatic) and Nick Clegg (swivel-eyed Europhile).

So much for the return of Gladstonian Liberalism, they'll be nothing to stop that foam-flecked finance "expert" Cable now. Where's John Redwood to save the day!?

Shakespearian Tragedy

The journalists who dug up this story are utter scumbags.Here we had an honourable and very intelligent man who had such great potential. He was determined to serve his country and rescue its economy, but was shot down for trying to keep his private life to himself. Thanks to the Daily Telegraph the prospects for this country's economic recovery have now been seriously damaged and the life of an innocent individual and his partner have collapsed into tragic disarray.

Chingford Man

Come off it, James. If any of us in the real world used our employer's expenses in the same way then we'd be fired for gross misconduct.

Laws is a competent man and he's entitled to a private life but when you break strict rules on using public money then a tonne of bricks has to land on you, both as a punishment and as a deterrent to others. End of.

TomTom

David Laws’ departure from government is a massive blow to the British public life, to the coalition and this country’s chance of returning to fiscal sanity.

If that were true Cameron should ask for a dissolution and a new General Election since to carry on when the Government has lost its star performer would be against the national interest. Had I known David Laws was the Saviour of the Nation I should have wished a LibDem Government......fortunately I don;t think he was so important as I don't believe the impending collapse of the Euro can be impeded by David Laws, and that is the key economic factor for this offshore island economy

john wright

Today my copy of the telegraph has the story of david laws on page 4 and opposite on page 5 there is the story of Alistair Campbell on Question Time with a large photo of AC holding a photo of David Laws in his hand .Thank you Mr editor for answering the question in everyones mind.May the Curse of Sysaphus be on him for ever.

nick

Tough. If you break the rules, you have to suffer the consequences.

He lied on his claim form. That's why he's gone.

It's not as if he's the only one who can make the cuts. Lots of other Lib Dem and Tory candidates.

Nick

rdc

Quite agreed. And the Barclay Bros own the Spectator as well as the Telegraph (a disgusting and accidentally evil rag). So, what will you do James. Please will someone expose the telegraph running agenda.

GDT

James, quite right. The best man for the job has gone. I hope he can still be involved in a support role, and in time get the chance to perform the role again.
This pales into insignificance when compared to Blunkett and Mandelsons transgressions.
Had there no been a "homosexual" slant to this article it would never have taken off.

Long the UK

Just had a look at Danny Alexander's C.V. on Wiki, it is very uninspiring. He has virtually no business/money/finance experience. He is a machine politician.

I could weep, I was feeling very positive, this has shattered much of my hope.

Looking at the Telegraph today, it is obvious they're after his scalp. I've just phoned their offices and let rip to one of their journos.

morrissey

Come, come, now Laws was not that great he is becoming the only man in the world who could save this country and by the minute he is close to Saint status. Lets get this in perspective no one is indispensable and he did wrong the worse thing of all he knew he was lying to everyone well that enough for him to be gone in my books

tomdaylight

I somewhat agree (although this was a completely unnecessary trap of his own creation - he should have just not bothered claiming a second home allowance) but looking at him as he gave his resignation speech it seemed clear to me that he had lost the very thing that made him so able to do the job - his own confidence.

Chris Wilkins

Absolutely right James. What on earth the Telegraph thought it was doing in printing this story it is hard to know. That paper will now be left with a Chief Sec who, as you say, is unlikely to be as effective in pursuing the agenda we need and they would naturally support.

That said, once the story was printed it was inevitable that he would have to go. Cameron promised a new politics, and in that context there was no way he could hang on.

But it's a sad day for politics, for the country, and of course for David Laws.

David Phipps

In answer to strapworld - it is not the bigots that have won - it is principle. Laws broke the rules - end of story! And the rest of the 'disgraced' re-elected MPs should follow suit!

In answer to James Forsyth - Laws drove himself out of public life by his decision and actions.

As I have posted elsewhere - we either have probity in our MPs, or we do not and if not then what do we have?

Kev

It would be interesting to convene a focus group, get them to go through the details of each member of the cabinet's expenses, and rank them from best to worst.

I suspect David Laws would be mid table at worst.

SUSAN HILL

This is a very complex matter but the one thing that strikes me is that Laws felt he had to conceal - there really is no other word - his homosexuality from family and friends. This is not 1950. And given that he was unmarried, and lived with a man who was also unmarried for some considerable time, could he really have believed his family and friends were not perfectly well aware of his sexual status ? Set aside the expenses for a moment. Surely he could have had good advice from people in Parliament like Alan Duncan, Simon Hughes and Ben Bradshaw who seem perfectly happy to be public about their sexuality. I have no idea what views his friends and family hold but would they really all have been deeply horrified and have cast him into outer darkness ? If so, he would have been better to distance himself from them anyway.
The expenses business is complicated and we will get a ruling on it from the right quarter before long. Perhaps he was wrong. It seems so.
I think we do have to ask if it would have made any difference to people's defence of Laws had the person with whom he was having a relationship and from whom he rented accomodation been a woman.

Sally Chattejee

A real pity but imagine someone telling the Inland Revenue they tried to cover up something because of a situation in their private life, or someone seeking housing benefit whilst not being open and honest. So I can see why he's gone.

Sevo

I can't believe the moral relativists on this site. The power of example is precisely valid here BECAUSE he is considered competent and valuable. That he should be forced to resign tells us so much more about this adminstration than if the old one had squeezed one of its legion of incompetents off the front bench for a similar reason. This development is comforting, in my view.

Tiberius

I've read through your piece twice, James, and quite simply I agree with every single word of it.

Mycroft

Bloody Telegraph, just what they wanted; what a loss for us.

perdix

Are you pleased to belong to the Telegraph stable?

Holly ......

Laws resigning has shut the story down.
Will the MSM now persue his personal life and who he was renting from?
We now know most of the details that relate to his expenses claims,anything else is none of our business.
Can the MSM/public dictate who politicians are allowed to have relationships with?
I have been very impressed by Mr Laws and who he rented from was irrelevant.I do not believe charging rent to the taxpayer was
'fiddling' expenses.
Flipping mortgages,claiming furniture,TV's,
food ect was blatent abuse of taxpayers money.
Mr Laws has NOT lost any of my respect.

lids

James, thank you for your comments. I see your editor is shedding crocodile tears in The Telegraph tonight. Hope the "Telegraph" staff are enjoying their "success". Everyone else's loss.

AAE

There were many "systems failures" before the DT published this story. The rules for expenses have been and remain badly written, Mr Laws could have sought clarification on his particular circumstances and surely that could have been done in strict confidence. He must have seen that whatever the technicalities, his boyfriend making a huge profit on the sale of a property to which he'd contributed in great part to the mortgage was never going to look good and this was something he could have avoided. I feel sorry for him and the fact that he clearly has qualities which are much needed, so how about The Speccie and the DT focus on all the unknowns who have their lives made hell by ruthless investigations by the DSS and HMRC, campaign to have the tax code reduced by a few thousand pages for starters, and maybe MPs and press will understand that however hard it is for the likes of Mr Laws with all the mitigation his media friends give him, the ordinary man who has been enmeshed and cowed by the welter of political regulation is fed up with hearing, if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear. It isn't true.

alexsandr

will he do 1 years pennance and be back or is that it?

Dennis Churchill

This has nothing to do with his sexuality. How can we be expected to take seriously the need to “tighten our belts” etc etc from someone who claims tax free allowances that breach the rules?
If it had been his mistress, who he had claimed was his Landlord; it would have been exactly the same.
Remember we are going to be taxed until the pips squeak. We are going to see tens of thousands lose their jobs—how can we be expected to accept this from someone fiddling their expenses to the tune of twice the average industrial wage?
Are the media even more out of touch than the political class? The public is sick and tired of hypocrites running the country. Labour has sickened us. We want change. We want honesty.

Luther Blissett

It was bad judgement on his part. Fair enough - so lets find someone whose judgement is not bad to run our finances.... A hung parliament - I wish ...

Colin

Let's hope he's back in the cabinet, soon.

Frank Sutton

You might wonder at the Torygraph's thinking here.
This whole home-flipping,maxing out allowances business that dominated so much of the news these past few months is a fraction of a drop in the ocean compared to the debt we're in.
But I bet there are some people who think the deficit is chiefly caused by duck houses, bath plugs and setting up home in your sister's bedsit while hubby rents a porn video.
The DT has had this info for months, so why sit on it until now, when it will cause maximum damage?
The UK - the country whose govt is held to ransom by the last of the broadsheets.

wound-up

Laws will come out of this a much much happier man,and to hell with the bloody Telegraph

adrian harper

hey theres a new rule for journalism.if you like/support a politician then suppress the truth. and vice versa. well done telegraph keep exposing all politicians without fear or favour.

Andrew Guy

Am I alone in sensing the first step in a series of events to be played out over the next few months?
- the right wing of the Conservative Party, UKIP's close cousins, are furious with Cameron, for reasons that all writers here know. To the point of seeking his replacement for a non-too-distant General Election. The Daily Telegraph has kicked off with a pretty strong blow - revenge for CGT policy being high on the list.
- unfortunately for its core readers, its dream of how their party should look and what it believes has one major drawbac - it is unelectable
- even after 13 years out of power they have forgotten that only one party sets the agenda : the one in government, and David Cameron realised this a long time ago
- a further event will take place that puts them in an even more unrealistic position. Next time they will probably be facing a Miliband, not Brown, and unless the whole Conservative Party, together with UKIP, focus on the one thing that matters, namely winning and holding power, then the threat to the financial future of this country will have returned.
-

Ian

I am depressed beyond words. This story was clearly motivated by hatred of Cameron, gays and Liberals. I will never buy a Telegraph again.

djw2009

"Hard not to well up"? What's wrong with you, James Forsyth. Get a grip! "imagine feeling you had to keep your personal life private from your family and friends" - it was his personal choice. He didn't feel "he had to". No one has to in Britain today. He chose to.

Why does the Spectator employ left-wing twits like James Forsyth?

Frank P

The bigging up of Laws as though he is Einstein reincarnated, is making me somewhat nauseous. We have no idea what sort of a fist (sorry) he would have made of cleaning up the current mess, or how he would have reacted to events which will develop in the course of the next few years as a result of the wreckage left by Brown and his cabal of traitors.

What we do now know is that he was living a lie and fiddling to cover it up. Those are not good credentials for such a well paid and burdensome responsibility.

Perhaps we should be reminded that he was an MP from the party that came third in the election and only got the job in a carve up compromise anyway, to enable both coalition parties to grab power: very lucky to be granted such a prominent job and very stupid not to have sorted out his baggage beforehand.

If bleeding hearts above are telling us that he is the only politician capable of doing the sums that will result in us all becoming much poorer, anyway, as they rip us off to deal with the gigantic mountain of debt accrued by the last lot, then pray tell what would have happened if the Tories had got a decent majority and didn't need the LDs? As it is, they ceding important jobs to them. Well, they f****d up in this case. Two penn'orth of ‘due diligence’ would have revealed his vulnerability and Clegg would have had to stick someone else up, instead.
Anyway I don't believe they weren't aware, I suspect they were all taking a punt and hoping the sand of events would bury the skeleton in the cupboard.

As for it being a 'witch hunt' - which hunt are you referring to? The Berkeley, I presume. Then the cry of 'homophobia' (whatever that means) - Oh FFS! He was a petty embezzler; most get porridge when caught. He'll just retire to his millions and a City sinecure for a bit and lick his wounds before the pink panthers pave the way for his return. Perhaps he and his paramour can spend some time on the Yacht in Corfu with Mandy and they can lick their - er - wounds together.

Now watch the tsunami of sympathy and crocodile tears gush from the media. Our host Master Nelson was the first to start tonight on Sky.

Fetch the bucket!

Liz

David Laws was one of the best things about this new government. He is too valuable to get rid of, we need him to help stabilise the economy. Cameron should bring him back as soon as possible. Sod his private life and his suspect expenses. BRING LAWS BACK! THE COUNTRY NEEDS HIM.

Tim W

In this uncertain political and economic world there is only now one certainty: George Osborne had better be brilliant. When faced with adversity once, at Blackpool in 2007, he played a blinder. When faced again, during the banking crisis, he was a disaster.

If he flunks this he flunks Britain's future. Danny Alexander will not, at his age, want to become unpopular, which is a real problem that Laws could deal with. Osborne needs to enlist all the help of economic experts privately or publicly for the budgets he makes. Without David Laws he needs all the help he can get. For that reason he has my full backing.

Tim Calvert

Nonsense, this is good news.

Mr Laws is a politician for whom I have a great deal of respect and his resignation has raised my opinion of him.

You are so locked in the venality of New Labour that you have forgotten the concept of the principled politicain. Thirty years ago, it would have been inconceivable that he would not resign under the circumstances.
Although I am saddened that he has lost his job as I believe he was highly competent, by resigning he has done more to raise the standards of politics than anyone I can think of since Lord Carrington.

He broke the rules and resigned - the coalition has been greatly strengthened by his principled stand and I applaud him for it.

It was New Labour that invented the principle that you could do anything and get away with it so long as you had ticked all the boxes.

The Spectator seems to bought into this idea.

Well,matey, its wrong and shame on you.

D Duggan

Chill out!

Policies, and cuts, are determined by governments, not individuals. This was a crucial moment - an Ecclestone moment, and common sense prevailed.

Simon Too

Getting it?

No ifs, no buts - MPs have been caught with their trotters in the till and any one of them, for whatever reason, failing to be punctillious in observing the letter and the spirit of the rules is in for the chop.

No one can delude himself that anything has moved on from the expenses scandal. A capable man has now been caught erring with his expenses. And so a capable man is overboard, brought down by a relatively minor transgression, and it is a true tragedy.

To his credit, he saw that the tragedy meant that he had to resign and resign promptly. Some, though, do still seem to be deluded that there ought to have been some wriggle room for a valued man. That thinking suggests that this tragedy is but a curtain raiser for a greater series of tragedies to come.

If you had any doubts, know now that that is the iron law of public life today.

No ifs, no buts.

Get it?

Nicholas

QT, the stitch-up of No.10, the vile Campbell and his framed photo of David Laws, then the Telegraph revelation.

Coincidence?

Pull the other one.

Evil is afoot in Britain. Pure, unmitigated evil. And a far cry from expenses misdemeanours and hidden homosexuality.

Tiberius

lids: don't you mean former editor? And I don't agree with his one-eyed take on this story. He should consider the Lineker option if he wishes to restore his reputation.

Wilhelm

The real story is why did the Telegraph stick the knife into David Laws now when they had the info on him for 12 months.

Odd isnt it? David Laws was the only liberal with a brain, now we have a donut Danny Alexander in charge. What a great success for the Telegraph and the country, yeah.

Conservative Radical

Keep some perspective boys.

If the Conservatives had won a majority Laws wouldn't be any where near the levers of power. Hammond would be No 2 and doing an equally good job.

As for those of you that think it woz the Telegraph that stuck the knife in – you’ve completely lost the plot – sorry.

Do what Laws did in any plc or half decent company you’ld be out.

In fact there’s a very good case to call for his deselection. The GE we just held was supposed to clean up Westminster – unfortunately it didn’t do quite a good enough job.

Expect more ‘revelations’ and more resignations.

David Lindsay

The revered City comes to the reviled Westminster.

Bringing its standards and expectations with it.

djw2009

David Laws is not a victim of any "phobia", but the more I think about it, accepting his resignation was the wrong call for David Cameron.

Cameron is just an opportunist. In fact, I would rather David Laws was PM than David Cameron - Laws stands for something and is interested in sorting out the nation's finances. David Cameron just stands for his own self-interest.

Look! Cameron could have pointed out Laws did not make the maximum on expenses, and was entitled to keep his private life private. What is distasteful about these commissioners and expense investigations is the requirement that all the details of your private life have to go public.

Laws was totally entitled to keep his private life private, and in fact I admire him for trying to do so, and not trying to make capital out of "minority status" as some politicians would have done. A few more "gay" people deciding to act with decorum and England would be a more pleasant place.

Why couldn't Cameron explain any of this to the electorate? It seems the easiest line of least resistance to just accept his resignation, but Cameron seems incapable of an act of genuine leadership other than protecting his own back.

This could well have an impact on the viability of the coalition, or even cause the nation's finances to follow a less positive course - and that is the real lack of leadership by Cameron.

Cameron is simply spineless. What is he doing as PM? I feel sure that large numbers of died in the wool Conservatives like myself would prefer to have Laws in No 10 rather than Cameron - that is the really awful thing highlighted by this. Cameron has no balls. He will always cover his **** like some pathetic middle manager.

xenophon

A disaster? What value do you place on integrity in government?

Dennis Churchill

Andrew Guy
It may be that it is the knowledge that the Conservatives will be facing a Milliband that emboldens them. As well as the fact that Labour and the Liberals are bankrupt.
We simply need to be clear about what we expect from politicians. And even more importantly the political class needs to understand the limits of the electorates’ patience with their grubby little sub-culture.
As for the Telegraph. The information on all MP’s claims is almost certainly widely available to its staff. So a journalist comes up with this story showing that the man responsible for proposing and implementing unprecedented peacetime cuts fiddles his expenses. How would you stop the story?
Nicholas
I agree with you about Campbell and the photograph. He would have revealed the fiddle on Question Time. That is why Laws was not there.

Fatbloke on tour

Now that the Poisoned Dwarf has been run out of town any chance that Sniffy will be next?

If any man has to pay a woman to appear in a picture with him then I think questions need to be asked.

Oh well ...

Human Race 1 -- Dog Boilers 0

Jez

What an utter bunch of w*nkers we've got running this country.

F*ck's sake.

immcintyre

Any self-respecting Speccie journalist in the pay of the Barclay Brothers would resign on Monday morning. All those who choose to stay are dishonourable hypocrites.

ACN

Resignation may prove to be a good career move. Take Mandelson for example...

SUSAN HILL

Nicholas. I thought exactly that when I saw Campbell with the photograph and framed too (how odd was that ?) of David Laws. He and Mandelson are evil men. In his resignation speech Laws came across as shaken, pale, under immense stress and very dignified. Without wishing to condone his expenses errors, I feel he has been stitched up by someone somewhere - and the glee among those who have done it at getting such a prominent and important scalp so soon will be a very nasty thing to see - except that we won`t see it, they will be dancing behind closed doors. It leaves a bad smell - a sulphurous one.

Minnie Ovens

Oh dear. I become more and more concerned that the understanding and importance of moral standards in high office is so low in today's readers of The Spectator.
The specious arguments that this is a gay stitch up are, quite simply, naive or plain malevolent.
Mr Laws dishonestly claimed for utility costs which were inflated.
Apparently many people commenting here think that is fine "because he is needed at an important period of our government".
What superficially thought through rubbish.
The calibre and morality of the Government is of the highest importance.
They can only govern well if they have an altruism which has been in steep decline for over 60 years.
It seems many of the Spectator readers think it is OK for those they like to cheat but not those they dislike.
Grow up. Over the past thirty years Government morality, principles and practices have fallen into the gutter. In governmental terms we are on the way to being a banana republic.
As the country is rebuilt (hopefully) an important, integral part of that is a rebuilding of our core beliefs.
This week we have heard amazing stories our our father's and grandfather's heroic endeavours. Has it occurred to many that they fought for something which has been lost in the national psyche over the past 60 years.
A love of country, a love of family and a love for a way of life which was priceless.

Lord Monkington-Smythe

@Susan Hill

I think that on the bare rights and wrongs of MPs claiming too much you can judge as you see fit, but I would imagine that on the subject of homosexuality, announcing to your parents that you are not the person they thought that you were must be very traumatic, to say the least. I think until you walk a mile in a man's shoes, you should not presume to judge him.

JW

Quite right, Mnnie Ovens!

Alcazar

Hands up how many people knew anything about David Laws 6 months ago?

How many people here can say it is a terrible loss when we have no idea how he would have performed in Government - he has only been there three weeks and nobody can be judged on that.

It will become clear in the next few days how deep his deception ran - and if he lied to Commons' authorities.

He conspired with his partner to help him by a bigger, more expensive house by remortgaging his own house in Somerset - and then proceeded to claim EVEN HIGHER RENT after helping his partner secure the new premises.

He submitted round figures bill on maintenance - until he had to include receipts and these maintenance claims magically evaporated.

So - all you claiming he is such a great asset to the Government, would you employ him if he was fiddling his expenses under your nose?

No, I thought not.

MK

Laws was one of the few MPs capable of bringing the deficit down.

The expense issue was marginal and understandable given his personal circumstances.

This was a dog-whistle story from a paper seething about the proposed changes to CGT.

Truly sad day.

Alcazar

Minnie Owens, spot on.

I'm welling up

I don't believe what I'm reading here.

This man, by his own admission, has fiddled thousands of pounds of public money and the poor lamb has to resign? And some clown on the Spectator is writing about welling up?

When the public just voted, in broad terms, the same old faces in at this election I came to the conclusion that this country deserves what it gets. This, you timid, reflexive, indoctrinated Tory/Labour voters, is what you get. This is what you get. You deserve it.

Meanwhile, this thief should go to jail, just like anyone else who embezzles tens of thousands of pounds from his employer. But he'll be back, because you deserve him.

Thank you Telegraph, perhaps the last bastion of honesty in our media and public life.

lescam

Shakespearian Tragedy
8:38pm

"The journalists who dug up this story are utter scumbags. Here we had an honourable and very intelligent man who had such great potential. He was determined to serve his country and rescue its economy, but was shot down for trying to keep his private life to himself. Thanks to the Daily Telegraph the prospects for this country's economic recovery have now been seriously damaged and the life of an innocent individual and his partner have collapsed into tragic disarray."

I couldn't agree more. Damn the Telegraph and its holier-than-thou journos and editor. This resignation could not have come at a worse time, just when Britain, on its knees and practically bankrupt, desperately needs a man in the Treasury with the economic and financial acumen to sort out the mess. Laws was the ideal person for this, and his personal tragedy is a tragedy for the country as well.

With all due respect to Danny Alexander, why couldn't the job now go to Phillip Hammond, who was due to get it in the first place, and give Hammond's Transport job to Alexander? I know the Libs want 5 cabinet places, but do they have to always be the same jobs? Surely Hammond is the better man for this job. But Laws was exceptionally well suited to it, and I am feeling gutted that he has been forced out by the sheer vindictiveness of the Telegraph. If they think this will help their campaign not to raise CGT, I just hope it gets bunged up to 50%. That'll give them something to think about.

arnoldo87

I agree with Nick

Mark Cannon

Mr Laws was doing an excellent job. If this coalition is to work there has to be a LibDem as Treasury Secretary who is also able and who commands sufficient respect/trust from the Conservative members of the coalition. So in that sense it is a great loss.
However, at best Mr Laws made a bad judgment call on the rule change in 2006. His desire to protect his own privacy is quite understandable. It did not require him to agree to pay £40,000 to his boyfriend (I would have said partner, but that is the point at issue). Mr Laws may well have derived no direct benefit from these payments, but the money was paid. I would much rather it had not been and that Mr Laws was still Chief Secretary.
As for the attacks on the Daily Telegraph, any newspaper with such a story would run it. There is no warrant for conspiracy theories. It is puzzling that the Telegraph continues to employ (or ever employed) Mary Riddell. She is boring and has nothing to say which is of the slightest interest to Telegraph readers. Simon Heffer's attacks on Cameron are usually tedious (he used to be able to redeem himself by the virulence of his attacks on Labour), but they do speak to a section of the Telegraph readership. There is no conspiracy here: just journalists getting excited about their story (and they are journalists, not politicians, whatever the naive may think).

Lord Falmouth

If you wish something to remain private that's fine. But don't use public funds to do it.

Derek

If I were the Barclay brothers and reading Mr.Forsyth's approach to fiddling expenses expressed in this blog,I would want to commission an immediate independent investigation of expenses claims at the Spectator against the rules on such claims which the editor no doubt has in force...just to check, you know.

SUSAN HILL

Lord Monkton Smythe..I was not judging him and I agree. I was simply saying that I`d be surprised if they really had no inkling and just kept quiet about it. He was right to want to try and have some sort of private life but oddly, that is probably easier once everyone knows the nature of that life. The gutter press, into which bracket we must now put the Telegraph, won't let something like this rest until they have it out. Despicable but that's why it's better to be open. I don`t underestimate the difficulty of doing that though.

Layton C

Although David Laws is obviously a very capable guy and his skills will be missed in the government, there is one thing that those who keep calling him an honourable and honest man seem to be missing…HE LIED!
In a recent interview David Laws was asked if he was in a relationship and he said he was not.
A desire for privacy is one thing, telling a downright lie is another.
How can someone who is a known liar (never mind the expenses bit) continue in such a high profile position?
And why is noone else picking up on this lie? Is the truth no longer important?
Of course he had to go…

David Lindsay

Welcome back to the Major Government. Right-wing MPs as a de facto separate party, by far the bitterest and most vociferous section of the Opposition. And now, newspapers dismissing Cabinet Ministers at will.

DavidDP

Hear, hear, James. I don't always agree with what you say, but you've got it spot on.

The Telegraph's coverage of the expenses issue went very quickly from exposure in the public service to prurient hysteria. They have now driven out a man who was perhaps one of the key figures in ensuring this country headed in the right direction over the next few years.

Gladstonian was a word much used with respect to Laws, and I hope that this affair does not parallel that of Charles Parnell, a man of Gladsone's era brought down by an issue that we would find bizarre today, without which we may have avoided a century of bloodshed in Northern Ireland.

TrevorsDen

Laws did not con the taxpayer out of money - he saved kt money. He could have rented somewhere up to 1500 a month, not 900. The 900 was a fair payment for a fair service provided.

Should he have paid it to someone he knew? A HoP committee gave Smith a small slap on the wrist for a greater and more blatant misdemeanour.

Ian Walker

I feel desperately sorry for Laws, and very sad on the coalition's behalf. One wonders how much hand that slimebag Campbell had in taking out a star performer.

But clinging on to office in the face of clear and obvious wrongdoing was one of the least edifying features of Labour's time in office. Laws will be back, tougher, stronger and smarter - form is temporary but class is permanent.

DavidDP

"The calibre and morality of the Government is of the highest importance."

Lloyd George was highly corrupt, both in terms of economics and sex. Yet he was a vital wartime leader.

I think you are the one that needs to grow up from the fairy tale world of altruism and perfect morals in perfect leaders you seem to have constructed.

Verity

Nicholas, I do agree with you that evil is afoot in Britain and have felt it for some time. I felt it so strongly that I sold my house and got the hell out.

As an aside, before I return to the evil, I find it hard to believe that anyone in Parliament these days would think it critical that they hide a homosexual partnership. So critical that they had to disguise their private life by jiggery-pokery with regard to stealing from taxpayers …

It's not as though Laws is a cruiser or a chicken hawk or patronized rent boys like fellow Lib Dem Mark Oaten. He has an apparently secure, respectable relationship.

Plus, he's a Lib Dem, for God's sake. When was the last time they condemned anything?

He was aware that he was stealing from the taxpayer.

He was stealing ... in the service of himself. He was robbing folks who go out at midnight to work as stackers in supermarkets, or handle critical incidents at 2 a.m. as emergency crews, or work as cleaners or dinner ladies, or do grindingly boring other jobs to stay solvent and meet their bills – or, indeed, work as journalists on national newspapers and blogs. Taxpayers. Some of the cash that was taken off their pay cheques each week was going to protect the reputation of this millionaire MP. Why?

He was stealing from them to hide a secret – a gay, stable relationship? What’s to hide?

I suspect that there is more to this story than we know.

To return to Nicholas and ‘evil afoot in Britain’ … I had come home to live in Britain, against my mother’s advice - and I sensed wickedness, malice and destruction in the person of Tony Blair. And, of course, the people who surrounded him. Seeing the roadmap ahead for my country, I got the hell out again. I left even before my house sold. I was scared that if I stayed until it was sold, I might never get out. No one person or group could fight the heft of the evil that was abroad at that time … and still is. David Cameron is no saviour. He is a continuer.

Frank P – your post on this thread was outstanding, even by your elevated standards.

Verity

James Forsythe: This resignation is a disaster for our public life, the coalition and the nation's finances.

Are? you? mad? Dear God! James, as a matter of urgency for yourself and our nation's health, get back inside ... The Beltway ... now! While I'm watching you ...

biggestaspidistra

The producer of Question Time, the BBC and Campbell. A story waiting to be told.

clem the gem

David Laws sadly believed in keeping his sexuality concealed from all but a few very close mates. This is shocking.
David Laws also felt that as a millionaire, the best way to do this was with OUR money. That is truly scandalous.
No doubt he will be back in government within 18 months. This is disgusting.

Anna

Thank you Kirsty Richards, for cutting through all the ---- and hand-wringing. There are rules to every game, and he has broken them for years. Good that he jumped before he had to be publicly pushed.

Lady Amelia

what Minnie Owens said.

Hot Runner

Politians I like should be allowed to fiddle their expenses.
Politicians I don't shouldn't.

Edward McLaughlin

Yes, he did wrong in his claims for rent - and his explanation that he wanted to keep his sexuality secret, seems weak.

Not good any of it. But seeing as he was the first politician in years, who looked to be actually interested in getting the required job done, rather than posturing and playing to the cameras, this is a great loss to a nation which needs true and urgent leadership.

Damon Hager

All right. So, get Danny Alexander to manage the job in public, and get David Laws to advise him closely behind the scenes. Which is what will happen anyway.

Roger Davies

The only acceptable outcome, anything else would portray Cameron and Clegg as latter day dithering Brownites. The ends do not justify the means. So let Laws walk in the wilderness in sack-cloth and ashes for 12 months, then bring him back.

By the way, whatever happened to Gordon Brown?

Owen Morgan

Chingford Man: "tonne of bricks".

What a pretentious twerp.

Paul B

James, past me the sick bag. What stomach churning tripe & bilge you and sycophants have written. Well up? Give me strength. Save your sympathies for those that deserve it, like the sun burnt baby or the families of the girls murdered in Bradford. Dianaesque emotions will be the death of this country. Yes he was talented, but he has taken my and other hard working taxpayers money wrongly. He fiddled his expenses and hes been caught with his hand in the till. He had to go.

All those who believing he shouldn`t have to resign demonstrate that they to don`t get it and they are every bit as part entitlement problem, as the fiddling politicians. Shape up, hes one man. He is replaceable.

Ron Todd

It would have been a bigger disaster for the country if Cameron had started by letting an expenses cheat stay as the second man at the treasury.

That he could have made even more expensive housing arrangements is no excuse. He was very rich and could have bought himself and his boyfriend a nice little London house to live in without bothering the taxpayer.

seb

We're near to bankruptcy as a nation can be without having to call in Oxfam or one of the UN's agencies to feed us. If the government cannot find the will to do something about this and steer us away from the cliff-edge without David Laws, then Cameron might as well do what Observer, Guardian and Independent journalists want and call an election in October and risk letting one of the Milibruvs steer us resolutely back towards the cliff-edge. Anyone not content, in the meantime, with Government-by-Newspaper can do what I do and avoid buying one. If the coalition is unable to cut spending, then we do need a second 2010 election. Let's wait until Osborne's budget to see. It's unlikely but not impossible that a second election could return a minority Labour government or a Lib-Lab coalition. That would mark the UK's acquisition of permanent Third World status.

oldtimer

Mr Forsyth, your headline is nonsense. In any public company if the Finance Director or his No 2 were found with their hands in the till, they would be out of door in an instant. That is the essence of the issue here.

It is nothing to do with homophobia - though that appears to be the smokescreen of choice of the government and, for a time, of Mr Laws himself.

No doubt he is a very clever man, but perhaps too clever in trying to get around the 2006 changes in expenses rules. Probably he never expected to find himself in the post of Chief Secretary. Resignation was his only course.

I do not criticise the DT for running this story. There are any number of plausible conspiracy theories possible.

Let us start with the LibDems as a possible source. Surely some in the party were aware of his domestic arrangements - his partner apparently did PR for Ashdown and Kennedy. In the world of greasy pole politics it is not difficult to imagine noses put out of joint by Mr Laws` rapid rise to stardom. The LibDems themselves divide between the Orangebookers and the rest. The rivalries are real enough.

Then there is the Labour party which has Mr Alistair Campbell in eminence grise mode on QT - aided and abetted by the BBC? The motives here are obvious enough.

Then there is the right wing of the Tory party, who dislike Cameron and the coalition, preferring to try to run with a minority government before calling an early election before Labour gets itself reorganised. Again plausible but, given the the Tory right wing response to Laws` early performance, I think unlikely.

Then there are the proprietors of the DT, the Barclay brothers. Their choice of writers suggests that they like to place each way bets - they hardly publish the Torygraph any more. I suspect that their greatest interest is in selling more newspapers. No doubt they believe that stories like this will help them do so.

Take your pick.

Kennybhoy

Verity wrote:

"Seeing the roadmap ahead for my country, I got the hell out again...I was scared ..."

Mother of God, what a truly pathetic admission. Why am I not surprised that your stock of courage extends only as far as your keyboard and defaming my country from your foreign bolt hole?

David Ossitt

It is depressing beyond belief that a man with David Laws’ talent has been driven out of public life.”

Writes James Forsyth, but he is wrong, what is depressing is that David Laws has fiddled his expenses, has worked the system for his own financial interest and sadly to keep up the pretence that he is a homosexual.

What is good; is the fact that he has resigned fairly quickly and with a certain amount of grace; for this he can be commended.

strapworld is wrong; there are no winners here.

David Ossitt

Nicholas at 9.53pm

My sentiments entirely, in this instance and speaking of Campbell ‘evil’ is the appropriate word.

David Ossitt

"keep up the pretence that he is a homosexual"

This should read as heterosexual.

denis cooper

I still haven't come to terms with the sheer stupidity and irresponsibility of the Telegraph for running this story before the emergency budget rather than waiting until afterwards.

Now the man who was working through details of that crucial budget, and who by all accounts was well suited to that task, has been peremptorily removed and replaced by somebody else who'll have to take time get up to speed on the work and who doesn't seem anything like as well suited to it.

The government will have to try to borrow hundreds of billions of pounds in the coming years, and just how much that will be, and what interest rates the markets will demand, will be significantly affected by the emergency budget.

Add just 0.1% to the average interest rate, and the cost to UK taxpayers would run into billions of pounds.

Not the few tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money that Laws shouldn't have claimed for rent when he was having sex with his landlord, under an ill-conceived Commons rule, but billions.

It's almost as if the Telegraph has deliberately set out to sabotage the economy.

Tim Carpenter LPUK

If Laws was claiming for a room at his girlfriend's place, he would be expected to go.

We should not conflate the fact he was gay with the fact that a very wealthy man claimed £40,000 that he did not have a right to. I am surprised that a person of his intellect did not know it was wrong, and, to me, that is a major part of why he should have stepped down pending a review if he felt he was innocent. Had he done that immediately, he might not have been forced to resign.

However, the other point as I keep saying is that, by having such a secret, he made himself a target for blackmail and that should be considered highly irresponsible and makes it far harder for him to retain high office.

p.s. How Ashdown can describe Laws as having "absolute integrity" escapes me as it is illogical, only to remember the fact that it is Ashdown saying it so it now makes perfect sense, if still incorrect.

Flash Gordon

Wow! I could have never expected such an outpour of sympathy in the face of deceit and corruption.

Chris Rose

It's very sad, but he had to go.

It reminds me of the death of Ian MacLeod in 1970, which was a hammer blow for the new Conservative government. MacLeod was well prepared to be Chancellor, but his successor was never up to the job.

I hope that the new government will not be so seriously weakened this time.

Frank P

oldtimer (9.50am)

Excellent round up of the possibilities; you seem to have covered all the bases. One hopes Cameron will hire you to cover his arse in future, but from your post I would assume that you would decline any such offer?

Verity

Thanks for your encouragement; you'll not be surprised to know that I consider you to be a far greater loss to the nation than the diminutive ex-Financial Secretary to the Empty Treasury; you should have stayed and entered politics. Second thoughts: you're probably more effective as a sniper in the Samizdatistas. (Now if that display of mutual admiration doesn't bring the pains on for the trolls, then nothing will).
:-)

w hudson

We dont want people who steal our money in Government
Regards
Taxpayer,Voter,Honest Man

w hudson

"was shot down for trying to keep his private life to himself" Very Lame Excuse
What a load of bollo

TGF UKIP

"It was hard not to well up...." Are you sure you shouldn't be Celebrity Editor with a tabloid, James? While sympathizing with Laws wish to keep his gayness away from his Catholic, and no doubt highly conventional parents, he was fiddling and small time fiddling at that.

As a number of other Coffee Housers have pointed out, irrespective of the justification of the rent claims (which to me could seem justifiable provided his name isn't also on the deeds) there is also the matter of the services, utilities and maintenance claims. Very, very small beer for such a very wealthy man to be caught fiddling.

Frank P's summary along with oldtimer's gets far closer to the actuality than so many of the other mawkish and silly posts on this thread.

Osred

An allegedly competent but comfortably off politician has been caught illicitly siphoning off public finds to the benefit of his comfortably off lover.

Its therefore no disaster for the nation that he has left. His alleged genius has been somewhat hidden from the plebs by the commentariat these last few years so some evidence wouldnt go amiss.

denis cooper

Osred @ 2:10 pm -

"An allegedly competent but comfortably off politician has been caught illicitly siphoning off public finds to the benefit of his comfortably off lover."

Right.

"An allegedly competent but comfortably off politician"

You seem to think that being "comfortably off" is a disadvantage which offsets the advantage of being "competent". So presumably you'd just as soon have a politician who was incompetent, but at least he was poorly off.

"has been caught illicitly siphoning off public finds"

No, he hasn't been caught doing that; he's been caught claiming for rent paid to a landlord with whom he has an intimate personal relationship, in contravention of a blanket ban embodied in a rather foolish House of Commons rule. It hasn't yet been established that the rent being paid was excessive or unjustified by his need for London accommodation in connection with his Parliamentary duties.

"to the benefit of his comfortably off lover"

Once again, the financial status of his landlord is totally irrelevant - either taxpayers were being charged too much to provide necessary London accommodation for the MP for Yeovil, or they were not being charged too much - and it in that respect it matters not a whit whether landlord and tenant were enjoying sexual relations.

I despair at the complete irrationality of some of the comments here, as well as the irrationality of the rules laid down on MPs expenses which should have been designed with just one aim in view - to protect the public purse by ensuring that MPs neither draw upon it any more than is necessary and justified for the performance of their Parliamentary duties, and nor do they abuse their public positions as part of any schemes to avoid or evade tax.

Marcher Baron

"It is depressing beyond belief that a man with David Laws’ talent has been driven out of public life." James, it is depressing beyond belief that a man with David Laws' talent should have claimed money to which he was not entitled. He was right to resign - at least that was the honourable thing to do.

Snowman

oldtimer and the rest of the high moral ground crew:

take it then you’ve never erred, never did anything that has entered into the liability side of the morality code ledger, right? Mething not. Most of us have tripped, probably all of us. That’s what being human is all about. Most of us have also got away with it; DL would have escaped the opprobrium, too, if he hadn’t landed the high profile Treasury job.

The expenses gold mine was designed loosely, it was to compensate for what the remuneration of those who govern us should have been as perceived by them. It turned out to be a trap. Some took more than a full advantage of it, others fell into it marginally without abusing it. From what we know, DL seems to fit into the latter category - £40k in eight years doesn’t strike as excessive. And his being rich has bugger all to do with it. It would surprise, if he didn’t get exonerated.

From what I know of life, it was his homosexuality that did for him. For those of us not afflicted with this gene it’s hard to imagine what it must be like for those who have been. Not all gays subscribe to the Stonewall’s take on it. He obviously didn’t, whether that was a mistake nobody but he himself could judge. On a personal level, his being outed may pain more than the loss of the job. I knew of someone who came close to committing suicide when it happened to him.

On the other side of the equation there sit the needs of the country. Since none of us know the guy personally one has to rely on the judgement of those who do. Their views are near unanimously positive from the personal to that of someone gifted for the job.

The ask then is: should satisfying our indignation at his alleged offence score above the task of navigating the nation’s finances in the right direction?

Perversely, his losing the post may yet turn to his advantage if, as I happen to believe, the coalition partners get hit at the next count because of the pain the austerity project is going inflict on the vast majority of the great unwashed.

Paul B @ 9.36:

Since you’ve asked, am neither a fiddling politician nor someone who has ever got a penny from the taxpayer. Am one more inclined to pragmatism and common sense when it comes to a future that’s more likely than not to be full of laceration, slashing and stuff. Close to Hot Runner @ 7.33 with one proviso: only when conditions demand it.

And lastly, Verity – you wrong, James’s right.

Paul Giles

He was the People's Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Paul B

Snowman. I didn`t ask any questions. I just asserted that as an expenses fiddler Laws had to resign. Those who cannot see this are as a culpable as Laws is. If others have fiddled their expenses and therefore find their moral compass somewhat compromised, I say shame on you for fiddling in the first instance and remember two wrongs, never make a right.

Snowman

Frank P @ 9.44:

Verity’s right on the eloquence, wordsmithing quality, the flow of your writing. Superb, except for the gist of the argument.

In the world you live in, what’s the colour of the skies? To demand, as the tanned one once did ‘a-whiter-than-white’ political culture, doesn’t border on lunacy, it runs miles beyond it. Good old Winston would have painted inside if you were setting the standards of probity then; you and I would be writing in a language other than English today.

My guru Edward Burke tells me that one’s conduct should not be ruled by principles, merely guided by them, and that circumstances matter, too. Of course, am against cheating, fiddling, bending the rules of morality and stuff as a matter of principle. Am not against any of it beyond a point where life becomes unliveable. Nothing in this world comes close to the ideal, least of all man’s behaviour. You’re setting the pole too high, I reckon, just have a peep at James’s blog @ 1.19 and Marvin’s stab at 3.53. You start another rant against Alexander then?

Your grudge against Laws, the City, the politicians per se may be admired by the likes of Verity, it does bugger all to changing what you see as unacceptable. It’s not even destructive, merely pleasing with shelf-life of a minute or so it takes to read it. Articulated in the rich language of yours, the world may be tickled by it, but has the world benefitted from it, hmmm?

(apology for joining the debate late, some of us have things to do even on a Bank Holiday weekend).

2trueblue

If you want to sit at the table then be prepared for everything about you to be exposed. The Lib Dems wanted to be in the big league and this is what happens when you are in the big league. It is not a question of how much money was involved, (rmemeber the duck house? it cost £1,300.00p) it is the principle of the matter. It is interesting to note that if someone is bright, likeable, etc. then they can not possibly have really breached the rules, or that it is a tragedy if they do. The real issue is he was in the wrong and he has taken responsibility for it now that it is in the main domain.

The media are not conducting a witch hunt, Laws found it neccessary to hide the true facts about his life. This can not have been a total surprise to the media. IT only became important when he got into the front line of politics.

It is a personal tragedy, the country will survive. It is not a disaster. It is also crazy to shift someone else from another role to satisfy the arrangement with the Lib Dems. Their guy did not live up to the role, Alexander does not have the profile to fit. Hammond should have been offered a crack at it.

Get a grip James, buy some good tissues. It is time to leave the X factor element now and get on with the real business.

JohnAnt

"imagine feeling you had to keep your personal life private from your family and friends"
But that doesn't mean you have to keep it private from the H o C Expenses Office.

JohnAnt

Having said that, it's a crying shame he had to go. He can't be replaced by anyone as effective. Alexander is a callow kid who's main claim to fame is that Clarke liked the way he tried to get us into the euro. Great!
Redwood would frighten the horses, alas. (Though a clever, clever man whose economic expertise is sorely needed.)
Hammond hasn't the necessary aggro; Cable is the enemy. So who?
General Amnesty for Laws.

Frank P

Snowman (8.28pm)

Thank you for the critique of my comment at 9.44pm. Very interesting! You are right of course, when discussing the peccadilloes of piss-taking politicians I tend towards prolixity, if not indeed hyperbole, at times (which is what I assume your first para was meant to ironically convey).

But at least it gives you an opportunity to wax likewise in rebuttal, does it not? Not only that, it flexes my ageing digits.

Your concern for Mr Laws is commendable, I must say; you are obviously a very nice man. I'm not so sure about your friend Edward Burke though, who seems to adhere to a similar philosophy to that of Edmund Burke, his surnamesake, who was rather glib in his pronouncements, by and large (but that's just my opinion, as is every word I write on this blog). I doubt, Snowman, that any of my tip-tapping (or yours) is "destructive" or "tittilating" to "the world". And you are absolutely right that not only has "the world" not benefited from it - it undoubtedly hasn't even noticed my little rants, as it spins lazily on its axis in this Sorry Scheme of Things Entire.

I shall now retire, fingers exercised for today, content that I have pleased Verity and irritated you. What more can a 76-year-old blowhard ask of existence? As for Mr Laws, I'm sure he will, like the late Liberace, cry all the way back to the bank. A pity William Connor (Cassandra)is no more. What fun he would have had with the shenanigans of the political midgets of today - particularly the, er ... ambivalent ones. Nighty, night!

Snowman

Frank P @ 2.23

You may correct me, but if memory serves it was Plato who recounts a story told by Socrates of the god Theuth credited with the invention of writing. Selling the new communication medium to the king of Egypt, the god argues that it will make the people wiser and with richer memories. The king has none of it, objecting that on the contrary, instead of improving memories, writing would implant forgetfulness as the great unwashed would be tempted to look for external marks that the written words represent relying less on the living speech carved on the soul.

How I wish the good king won he argument. He didn’t, and I feel envious of the ability of people like you, Verity, Nicholas and others capable of carving living speech on paper, an ability that often wins in debating on paper.

So you win, except for the soul of the argument. Hoping for a society totally free of bending the rule, or for politicians whiter than white must always disappoint.

PS and you haven't irritated me at all. My praising you is sincere.

anxiouswarrior

another wealthy man caught cheating the system how many more spivs and wide boys are going to get away with it whislt the fantasy world of the square mile and the criminals who work in it continue to fleece the system adied and helped by the right wing press the banks the tory party and now some right wing liberals hopefully vince cable will bash them into oblivion

Frank P

Snowman

Well, if your praise was sincere, you are an even nicer man than I had already adjudged you to be - and I am an even worse cynic than I already knew myself to be. But beware! You should heed another homily from your 'guru' - and I quote:

"Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver."

Thank you for the Platonic yarn; I had not read that one before. After delving around in the annals of ancient Greeks in my younger days, I came to conclusion that most of them seemed to have been delving around in the anals of other Greeks, so it put me off a bit, as I have a well known aversion to such diversions. But that fable has obviously travelled well nonetheless and now that you have drawn my attention to it, possibly it will travel even further when the opportunity arises. Never to old to learn and though plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, I always try to keep my conscience clear by due attribution (except when it would embarrass the author). ;-)

liz SA

Living as I do in a 'Banana Republic', I am horrified that there appears to be such a ground-swell of support for someone, who by his own admission, is a thief. It may satisfy some wishy-washy desire to think the best of everyone - particularly if he happens to be well-dressed, wealthy, fashionably pink, and intelligent - but since Laws has admitted to having stolen from the public purse, I would urge all the bleeding hearts here to get a grip. In my country of residence, our President has suspiciously survived charges of rape, embezzlement, perjury and corruption. Yet he remains President, principally because his voter constituency is largely uneducated, poor and easily persuaded to remain loyal through carrot and stick - in equal measure. Any country which allows the erosion of law (in this case through petty sentimentality) to replace ethical behaviour will become fair game for dishonesty and corruption. Frankly, James Forsyth should be ashamed to advertise his faux concern so publicly. I wonder if he's embarrassed re-reading his blog? Has England really become so morally flabby?

Bessie

What denis cooper (May 30th, 4:29pm) said.

@Lord Falmouth: "If you wish something to remain private that's fine. But don't use public funds to do it."

I don't think that's quite it. He used public funds to contribute to the cost of a shared second home, as would presumably have been within the rules if he and his partner had lived together openly and taken on a joint mortgage or tenancy. However, he chose to do so by paying rent to his partner, in order to preserve some degree of privacy. Unfortunately, this contravened the rules. In my view, that makes the rules a bit daft.

Paddy

Don't blame the Telegraph.

You're sounding like the control freaks and "spinners" we have just "slung" out.

Noa Zrk

How can you seriously claim that the resignation of one man, after just 18 days in office, one good speech and several years of well-dodgy expenses, is a national disaster?

After all, there's always another MP to replace him. Sooner or later we might even get an honest one...

Neil Wilson

As pointed out, if David and his partner had a joint mortgage, he would have been able to make a claim entirely within the rules.

This entire episode appears to be down to a touch of self-denial from David Laws about who he was. I hope he can resolve that and get back to the table as soon as possible.

There are far too few politicians with real world experience already.

Annabel

Imagine a Labour MP is having an affair with his secretary, but his Mum is deeply religious so he doesn't want her to know. Nevertheless, he shares a house with his ladyfriend, claims taxpayer's money to fund her mortgage on the house that she subsequently sells for a profit of £198,000. Oh, and the MP claims hundreds of pounds a month for outgoings, which drop to £37 a month once receipts are required. And another oh! The MP posts on his website all the names of neighbouring MPs who had to repay money to show how squeaky clean he is. You'd tear him apart.

On a personal level, I'm deeply sorry that David Laws is so anguished about his homosexuality - you'd have to have a heart of stone not to feel for him - but it's really an irrelevance. If he was that keen on keeping it secret, it was a bit daft to go and live with his boyfriend.

The truth is he was sucked into a corrupt culture and won't quite admit it. if you think he's hard done by, consider the civil servant who recently did a fiddle by posting his ebay sales through the office at a cost of £40 postage. He wasn't allowed to resign. He was sacked, deprived of all pension rights and avoided prosecution only because the small sum involved didn't justify the expense of court action.

Hadrian

Look, David Laws may not be perfect but by the standards of many of the self seeking toads who've been our recent political masters he is indeed a saintly man.
I also believe he was one of the very few to have had the guts to do the very difficult but thankless task assigned him and do it with real aplomb and intelligence.
AS for his alleged ( and that is what they remain as yet- alleged) financial misdealings, I think it important to remember the guy had to live somewhere as an M.P. and the rent he was paying was not exactly excessive or the capital. And it is a fact he is NOT the legal 'partner' of Mr Lundie, so I think he cannot be said to have breached the rules. Whatever emotional bond that developed between them, he could hardly live rent free off the other guy.
I am not saying I can approve of the life style but as has been pointed out he is a most circumspect person who does not parade his needs in our face like some and in any case his carrying such a burden of anguish over his personal inclinations should make us sympathetic for the poor fellow rather than holier-than-thou judgementa one way or the other. Gays excoriate him for being self oppressing, others for being morally corrupted. Well, whilst I regret he's fallen into such a relationship, on the other hand I think there must be very few of us who can live in an entirely barren emotional landscape devoid of all initimacy. The very phrase he used - 'intense privacy' indicates something of the burden, I suspect. So folk like him evoke in an odd way great sympathy. As Snowman says, it's easy to condemn when you don't have to walk that path.