11:05am Tuesday 9th February 2010
The "golden goodbye" payments for Bury North MP David Chaytor and two other MPs facing criminal charges over their expenses will be suspended until legal proceedings are over, Commons Speaker John Bercow has said.
Mr Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine would have been entitled to resettlement grants on stepping down from the Commons at the general election, it emerged at the weekend.
All three Labour MPs, who have had the party whip suspended, deny allegations of false accounting, and have pledged to defend themselves "robustly".
But Mr Bercow wrote to the Clerk of the House, Malcolm Jack, telling him to "suspend any payments which would otherwise be due and attributable to the Resettlement Grant in any case where criminal proceedings are brought in relation to any claim for expenses until the criminal proceedings have been finally disposed of."
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