Should David Laws be prosecuted for breaking Parliamentary rules?

[Titanic99]

I know a different thread exists on this latest scandal, but this is a different issue altogether.

 

The Parliamentary rules shown below, clearly show that you cannot claim expenses when leasing from a Partner.

 

Since 2006 parliamentary rules have banned MPs from "leasing accommodation from a partner".

 

Surely then if ordinary members of the public can be prosecuted for committing Housing Benefit fraud when they rent from a Partner, the same principles should apply to members of Parliament and Mr Laws should be prosecuted for this.

 

From the little information we have available to us it seems he was aware he was breaking the rules and that his defence is that he wanted to protect his privacy, and/or that he believed his partner didn’t fall into the category of “partner”.

 

My suspicion is that neither of these arguments would wash with Fraud investigators if we were to be investigated for Benefit fraud, so surely they shouldn’t wash with him either.

 

So should he be prosecuted or not, I think he should.

[medusa]

Can you stop posting threads when you know that there's already a thread on this topic? It's really not productive for the forum to split the same discussion over multiple threads.