Lib Dem MP in sleaze probe

A PARLIAMENTARY sleaze probe is to be held into expense claims made by a Liberal Democrat MP who paid his local party £14,000 for an office which cost them half that to lease.

John Lyon, the parliamentary standards commissioner, has agreed to Labour Party calls for an investigation into the rental arrangements of Willie Rennie, the Lib Dem MP for Dunfermline.

Last month, it emerged that Rennie and fellow Lib Dem MSP Jim Tolson had paid a total of £21,000 in rent to the local Lib Dems who paid just £7,050 to lease the property in the Fife town.

Rennie denies channelling funds to his local party and insists that the sums he and Tolson pay are justified as they include bills for telephone and electricity costs which, he says, make up the difference between the two amounts.

Following the initial claims about his expenses, Rennie's main rival for the seat, Labour's Thomas Docherty wrote to the Westminster standards commissioner calling for a full investigation.

Lyon has now agreed to consider whether or not Rennie used his expenses to help meet the cost of party political activities, having judged that the complaint does fall within his remit.

The Liberals last night claimed Labour were engaging in "gutter politics"ahead of next year's general election, and three years after Labour lost the previously safe seat to Rennie in a by-election.

A spokesman for Rennie said: "This is old news. The commissioner has not upheld the complaint. . He is merely investigating further, which is what we always knew would happen. Fundamentally, this is gutter politics from the Labour party which has lost Dumfermline twice in a row. Willie Rennie will be putting a response to the Standards Committee and any speculation on the outcome should be reserved until that point."

Docherty said he hoped the commissioner would examine the sudden increase in the rent paid by Rennie once the local Lib Dems took over the lease. When previously renting a smaller office in the same building from a private company, he paid only £6,600 a year.

Docherty claimed: "It is nothing short of a Lib Dem rent scam. It is fine renting an office from your party but here in Dunfermline the Lib Dems doubled the rent for subleasing back an office their MP already occupied."

Lyon is also to ask Rennie to explain the purchase of a printing press and folding machine just a month before the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2007.

Rennie charged £3,700 for the two machines. He said the local party had helped with the purchase and it was therefore within the rules if party political material had been produced on them.