Illsley’s untenable position

After David Chaytor’s conviction last week, the dominoes just keep on tumbling. Today, it was Eric Illsley’s turn to confess to his expenses-related sins – and he did so by pleading guilty to three “false accounting” charges in Southwark Crown Court. Given that he’s still MP for Barnsley Central – although now as an independent, rather than the Labour MP he was elected as – that makes him the first sitting parliamentarian to face sentencing as a receipt offender. A dubious accolade, to be sure.

In terms of day-to-day politics, the next question is whether Illsley will be able to hang on to his seat. He could, theoretically, remain in place if his sentence is under a year’s jail time. But both Ed Miliband and David Cameron are determined to prevent any such arrogance on Illsley’s part. Both have described his position as “untenable” today, and the government has outlined how Miliband can go about securing a resolution to have Illsley ousted from the Commons. The most likely outcome has to be yet another by-election, some time in the next few months.

Even so, the uncertainty around Illsley’s position does rather strengthen the case for giving powers of recall – and strong ones – to British constituents. If it was down to the public, I doubt Illsley would stand even the slightest chance of remaining in situ.