Britain's growing scandal over the misuse of parliamentary expenses claimed its first victims Today when a former Labour Party minister was suspended and a top Conservative lost his job as adviser to party leader David Cameron, according to dpa. Elliot Morley, a former agriculture minister under ex-prime minister Tony Blair, was suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party after it was revealed that he continued to claim expenses on a mortgage on a second home that had long been paid off. The amount in question - 16,000 pounds (24,000 dollars) - has been repaid by Morley, who also lost his job as the international climate change envoy for the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Conservative member of parliament (MP) Andrew MacKay resigned as a close adviser to Cameron after admitting he made claims on second homes described as "unacceptable" by Cameron. Both men, however, remain members of parliament until the next general election, which must be held by the middle of 2010. MacKay and his wife, Julie Kirkbride, who is also a Conservative MP, both claimed expenses on properties they declared as their respective second homes in a process described as "double flipping." The scandal, revealing immoral rather than illegal conduct under the expenses rules, have shaken all main political parties just weeks before local elections in England and elections to the European parliament in early June.
