Peers suspended from Lords over expense claims

Three peers were given lengthy suspensions from the House of Lords today after wrongly claiming thousands of pounds in expenses.

Labour peers Baroness Uddin and Lord Paul, and crossbencher Lord Bhatia, were suspended after the upper chamber approved the damning judgments of its Privileges and Conduct Committee.

Lady Uddin was suspended until the end of the parliamentary session in 2012 and told to repay 125,349.10.

Lord Bhatia was sidelined for eight months and has already repaid more than 27,000.

Lord Paul was suspended for four months and has already returned 41,982.

The sanctions are the toughest imposed on misbehaving members for more than 300 years.

Lady Uddin and crossbencher Lord Bhatia were found to have acted "not in good faith" by incorrectly declaring their main homes in order to claim generous overnight allowances.

An initial investigation decided that Lord Paul had also acted "not in good faith" in his home designations.

However, the committee rejected this finding on appeal, accepting that although "utterly unreasonable" and "negligent", he had not been "dishonest" and had already returned 41,982 last year.