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Ex-MP MacKay asked to apologise

Mr MacKay was an MP for 25 years before standing down earlier this year

Former Tory MP Andrew MacKay has been told to apologise after being found to have made a “serious misjudgement” over his parliamentary expenses claims.

Mr MacKay and his wife Julie Kirkbride, also an ex-MP, each claimed public money on their respective second homes.

After an inquiry, the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee said the arrangement was “fundamentally wrong”.

The couple, who both left Parliament at the last general election, have repaid £60,000 in claims between them.

Mr MacKay, a former aide to David Cameron, was one of the most senior and high-profile Conservative MPs to be criticised for his expenses claims amid the outcry over the abuse of rules relating to second homes.

Following an investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, triggered by a complaint against Mr MacKay, the committee of MPs concluded that the taxpayer was effectively paying for two of the couple’s homes while they were MPs.

Mr MacKay claimed on the property they shared in London, while Ms Kirkbride claimed on the family home in her Bromsgrove constituency.

“In our view, it should have been obvious to Mr MacKay that the arrangement whereby he and Ms Kirkbride each designated the other’s second home as their main home, allowing both to be funded from parliamentary allowances, was fundamentally wrong,” the committee said.

Accusing the former MP for Bracknell of a “serious misjudgement”, it asked him to apologise in writing to Parliament.

The committee was not asked to judge on Ms Kirkbride’s conduct regarding this arrangement as no complaint was received against her.

However, it has separately cleared the former MP for Bromsgrove of any wrongdoing after she increased her mortgage claims to pay for an extension to her home – one of whose rooms was used by her brother.

Ms Kirkbride said she was “delighted” by this verdict.

Separately, the Commons watchdog has also dismissed a complaint against the Tory MP Nadine Dorries over claims she breached the second home rules.

It said allegations, made by a BNP member, that Ms Dorries had claimed expenses for a property she was not entitled to were unfounded.

It was suggested that the MP claimed expenses for a home in her Bedfordshire constituency when it was actually her main residence, but the watchdog said the overwhelming body of evidence suggested this was not the case.

Ms Dorries said she was pleased by the verdict and, following 15 months of allegations against her, could “once again hold my head high”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Scottish actor Crowden dies at 87

Crowden played a sprightly retirement home resident in Waiting For God

Scottish actor Graham Crowden, known for his work on British radio, film and TV has died at the age of 87, his agent has confirmed.

The actor is perhaps best known for his roles in BBC serials A Very Peculiar Practice and Waiting for God.

Crowden turned down the role of Doctor Who after the departure of Jon Pertwee, eventually playing a villain opposite Tom Baker in The Horns of Nimon.

Crowden’s agent Sue Grantley said he was “a lovely, lovely man”.

“We will all miss him enormously,” she added.

Born in Edinburgh, Crowden’s career began on the stage and he took the role of The Player King in the original performance of Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

He played the mad scientist Doctor Millar in O Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital – two films in Lindsay Anderson’s Mick Travis trilogy.

Tom Baker as the Doctor and Graham Crowden as Soldeed in The Horns of Nimon

Crowden (r) turned down the role of the Doctor

In 1974, Crowden refused the lead role in Doctor Who because he did not want to commit himself to one part, and Tom Baker was cast as the Timelord instead.

Five years later, Crowden appeared as the villainous Soldeed in four episodes, opposite Baker.

Between 1990 and 1994, he starred with Stephanie Cole in the BBC comedy series Waiting for God, as a sprightly resident of a retirement home.

His TV work continued and in 2001, he had a guest role in Midsomer Murders.

In 2005, Crowden starred in the BBC Radio 4 sci-fi comedy Nebulous as Sir Ronald Rolands and he made his final TV appearance in 2008 as Sir John Sackville in Foyle’s War.

Crowden is survived by Phyllida, his wife of 58 years, and four children.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

D’oh! ‘Simpsons are not Catholic’, say producers

The producers of The Simpsons have contradicted the Pope’s official newspaper by declaring that the animated family are not Catholic.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

A&E at the dolls’ hospital

Hilary Brown introduces some of the patients at her toy hospital

Millions of toys are thrown away every year in Britain. But a growing respect for the quality of traditionally-made toys and pressure to save money has led to a surge in demand for the services of at least one “dolls’ hospital”.

Hilary Brown cradles the damaged rag doll in her arms as if it were a baby. She has been running a toys hospital in Essex for the past twenty years. It’s one of the few remaining places in the UK where you can get a precious toy or teddy bear from your childhood repaired.

As chief surgeon and head nurse, Hilary deals with all sorts of injuries from balding teddies to missing dolls’ limbs and she receives requests for help from all over the world.

“The owners of the patients that arrive in the hospital can be anywhere between three and 93 years old,” she says. “A lot of the time it’s a loved possession that has worn away over the years and needs some help and they suddenly realise its falling to pieces and needs desperate help.

“Sometimes its something that has been put in the loft and has been rediscovered and the owner now has a child of their own and they want it repaired so it can go on for the next generation.”

Hilary taught herself dressmaking at the age of 13 and ended up taking over the “dolls’ hospital” from a toy shop in the 90s.

Galley of the dolls’ heads – Hilary has to search far and wide for suitable spare parts

Her workload has gone from about seven repairs a year to that many in a a day. With husband Dave, aka Mr Fixit, they now repair about 700 toys a year.

Her services are sought from far and wide.

“Somebody once sent me a porcelain doll from Hong Kong… a man also contacted me from Seattle about repairing an old octopus. It needed new eyes. The gentleman said nobody would take him seriously in America”.

Hilary and Dave’s house in Essex has been completely overtaken by the hospital. Bottles of paint lie next to one broken doll and hundreds of little drawers contain all Hilary’s precious buttons and eyes.

Their spare bedroom is the waiting room while Hilary treats her charges in another bedroom and the living room.

The enterprise has the aura of an industry from days gone by – not dissimilar from Geppetto’s workshop in Pinnochio or the intricate work of the irritable toy doctor in Toy Story 2.

It’s all very at odds with the throwaway nature of today’s consumer society. Some 44 million toys are thrown away each year, according to the government’s waste watchdog Envirowise.

The result is fewer toy shops than ever will undertake repairs, says Hilary.

Yet for her, demand currently outstrips the supply (of her labour). She has had to close her waiting list.

Doll Hospital at American Toylandia circa 1955

Tiny cheers – hooray for the toy doctor, working his magic

Toy expert Ken Hoyt is only too aware of the shortage of expertise in this area.

The manager of Pollock’s toy museum in London, which specialises in toys from the Victorian era, says it’s “increasingly difficult to find people who repair old toys and a lot of the repairers we have used in the past no longer exist.”

“Just buy a new one is the attitude these days” says Hilary, and she admits finding the supplies can be difficult.

“Some of the eyes in the plastic vinyl dolls have to come from America and the wigs come from China. I have to search websites in America to buy odd little eyes.”

Yet there are signs or a revival of the make-do and mend attitude, says another expert in the field.

“There are fewer new rocking horses being sold these days but there is no let up in the number of horses being restored,” says Richard Bowman who the Kensington Rocking Horse Company in East Sussex. Restoration, he says, has come back into fashion.

His family run business repairs up to seventy rocking horses a year. “Usually it’s the grandparent who rediscovers a horse which belonged to their child when they were younger, which has been stored away for years and then rediscovered and they want it to be passed onto their grandchild. Lots of people say they would rather spend their money on something that is traditional and built to last.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Golfer ‘Monty’ hurt in car crash

Colin Montgomerie captained Europe to the Ryder Cup

Colin Montgomerie has been injured in a car crash near Glasgow.

The golfer – who captained Europe to the Ryder Cup earlier this month – was driving southbound on the A80 when the incident happened at 1127 BST.

His BMW is believed to have been involved in a collision with a van near Moodiesburn, North Lanarkshire.

Mr Montgomerie received minor injuries. The van driver is understood to have been taken to Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary as a precautionary measure.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Wales ‘lacks clout’ with cabinet

The Treasury and ministers in Cardiff Bay dispute the way Wales’ budget settlement is calculated

The assembly government says it has been short-changed by hundreds of millions of pounds following the UK government’s Spending Review.

The Treasury says Wales’ budget will fall by £400m next year but Welsh ministers say it is nearer £900m.

Assembly ministers said Wales has fared worse than Scotland or Northern Ireland in the allocation of funds.

Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan has said the UK Spending Review was a “fair funding settlement for Wales”.

The Welsh Assembly Government cabinet is meeting early on Thursday to discuss the impact of the UK spending cuts.

Osborne defends cuts ‘fairness’

Demonstrators gathered in Downing Street on Wednesday to voice their anger at the cuts

Chancellor George Osborne will defend his £81bn UK spending cuts later amid Labour claims that they are reckless and will hit some of the poorest hard.

The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has also said the cuts may not be enough if the budget deficit turns out to be worse than feared.

The UK faces its biggest spending cuts for decades over the next four years.

The government says that changes to tax, benefits and public services will mean the richest contribute the most.

Mr Osborne told MPs on Wednesday that he had acted to restore “sanity to our public finances” and deal “decisively” with Britain’s record peacetime deficit.

The government says public debt interest repayments now total £120m a day, or £43bn a year.

Mr Osborne will face a round of interviews later to explain his decisions in the Spending Review, which, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank, represent the deepest six-year period of cuts since the 1970s – not since World War II as previous plans implied.

The chancellor said he had been able to restrict departmental spending cuts to an average of 19% over four years – not the 20% he said Labour had planned – because of “tough but fair decisions to reform welfare, and the savings we’ve made on debt interest”.

He unveiled plans to cut a further £7bn from the welfare budget – on top of £11bn of cuts already announced – which include putting a time limit on some incapacity benefits and changes to tax credits and housing benefit.

He also announced that the state pension would rise to 66 for both men and women in 2020 – six years earlier than planned – and there would be a £3.5bn increase in public sector employee pension contributions.

KEY MEASURES£81bn cut from public spending over four years19% average departmental cuts – less than the 25% expected£7bn extra welfare cuts, including changes to incapacity, housing benefit and tax credits£3.5bn increase in public sector pension employee contributionsRise in state pension age brought forward7% cut for local councils from April next yearPermanent bank levyRail fares to rise 3% above inflation from 2012Johnson attacks ‘reckless’ cuts Welsh reaction: ‘better than feared’ Scottish reaction: ‘lower than expected’ NI reaction: Cuts worse than feared Your views on the cuts

They were unveiled alongside other changes, including a permanent bank levy, tax changes and cuts to child benefit for higher earners.

Mr Osborne said “those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden. Those with the most should pay the most, including our banks”.

Banks will find out later how a new levy on their finances will operate.

However, Labour said the Treasury’s own figures showed that the poorest 10% of people would pay more to reduce the deficit than everyone other than the richest 10%.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Angela Eagle told BBC Two’s Newsnight: “What we have got here is not actually a blueprint for recovery, it is not actually a plan for a big society.

“When you look at it, it is the state retreating. It is a blueprint for a smaller, meaner and nastier society and we think the government has got it wrong.”

Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson, who labelled the cuts a “reckless gamble with people’s livelihoods”, said there were “serious unanswered questions on how many jobs will be lost and how much the redundancies will cost the taxpayer”.

IFS acting director Carl Emmerson told Channel 4 News: “The benefit cuts we heard about today – an extra £7bn – on average will impact those in the bottom half of the income distribution more than the top half of the income distribution. Therefore, they are regressive.”

A special BBC News season examining the approaching cuts to public sector spending

The Spending Review: Making It Clear

He added that the best estimate suggested that the poorest 50% would also be hit harder by public service cuts.

The IFS also suggested it was still “quite possible” that the chancellor would have to make further spending cuts or put up tax in order to meet his target for tackling the deficit – if it turns out to be larger than the official estimate.

However, the Fitch ratings agency said Mr Osborne’s measures should help the UK retain its prized triple A credit rating.

Mr Osborne said the cuts were guided by fairness, reform and growth: “There have been some difficult decisions on welfare but I have sought to protect the most vulnerable and I think our overall welfare reforms will help give incentives to many in our country who currently don’t have them to seek employment.”

The main new welfare savings come from abolishing Employment and Support Allowance, which replaces incapacity benefit, for some categories of claimant after one year, raising £2bn.

Universal benefits for pensioners will be retained as budgeted for by the previous government and the temporary increase in the cold weather payment will be made permanent.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Crime in England and Wales falls

The chancellor has announced plans to cut the police budget by 4% a year

Recorded crime in England and Wales has fallen by 8% over the last year, latest Ministry of Justice figures show.

The annual statistics for the 12 months to June show big falls in car crime, criminal damage and burglary.

However, sexual offences have increased by 8% and the most serious sexual crimes are up by 10%.

Meanwhile, the British Crime Survey, based on people’s experiences of crime, found crime to be down 4% and people’s confidence in the police increasing.

The survey suggested 57% of people thought police in their local area were doing a good or excellent job compared with 54% in the same period the previous year.

And it found a smaller proportion of people perceived high levels of anti-social behaviour in their areas (down 2%).

But, it did indicate there had been slight increases in burglary, bicycle theft and other household theft.

The statistics come a day after the chancellor announced plans to cut the police budget by 4% a year, raising fears of major job losses in forces.

The MoJ figures showed 4.34 million incidents were recorded over the year.

Violent crimes against the person were down 4% from 903,400 to 871,700.

But the number of recorded rapes against women rose 15.7%, up from 12,100 to 14,000.

Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) head of crime Chief Constable Keith Bristow said the results showed police were continuing to play their part in driving down crime and protecting the public from harm.

He said: “We remain determined to tackle people who commit sexual offences and we are making real progress in this critical area, particularly around giving victims confidence to come forward and report these crimes and we need them do so.”

Scotland and Northern Ireland compile their statistics separately.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Cardinal criticises DUP stance

Cardinal Sean Brady has criticised Peter Robinson’s comments on church schools.

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland has said that Peter Robinson’s comments on the NI education system have created “distrust and suspicion”.

Cardinal Sean Brady said the comments were “a stark warning” which “set back” the future of education.

It follows a speech by Mr Robinson in which he described the current system as a “benign form of apartheid”.

The first minister said that while he had no objection to church schools, he objected to the state funding them.

In a speech on Thursday the cardinal referred directly to the controversy over Mr Robinson’s remarks.

“Recent suggestions that schools in Northern Ireland should be forced into one single state system are a stark warning to all those who respect diversity and the rights of parents,” he said.

“It seems strange that people in Northern Ireland are being told that they should accept a lower standard of rights and freedoms than they would have if they lived in Britain, Scotland or the south of Ireland.

“People in Northern Ireland deserve to live in a normal society.”

The cardinal said the comments had “set back” discussions on the future of education, north and south and had created “distrust and suspicion”.

The speech which sparked the controversy was made by Mr Robinson last Friday.

In an apparent reference to Catholic schools, he said he had no objection to church schools but he did object to the state paying for them.

“It may take ten years or longer to address this problem, which dates back many decades, but the real crime would be to accept the status quo for the sake of a quiet life,” he said.

“The benefits of such a system are not merely financial but could play a transformative role in changing society in Northern Ireland.”

“Future generations will not thank us if we fail to address this issue,” the DUP leader said.

The remarks have been welcomed by supporters of integrated education but criticised by the Catholic church.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Discovery of body linked to crash

Police said that a road accident which occurred earlier on the A1 is being linked to the incident

The discovery of a man’s body behind an East Lothian pub is being linked to a crash on the A1.

The body was found at the back of the Dolphin Inn at Whitecraig at about 0200 BST.

Detectives said a Toyota Celica collided with the central reservation near Dunbar and was found abandoned when officers arrived at the scene.

Police said they were “confident” the two incidents were linked and appealed for information.

“We are still trying to piece together the circumstances surrounding both of these incidents ”

Det Insp Stuart Hood Lothian and Borders Police

Anyone who was on the A1 and witnessed the collision, or who saw the vehicle driving erratically at the Thistly Cross Roundabout or the Spott Roundabout is asked to contact Lothian and Borders Police.

Similarly, anyone who saw a man walking alone in the countryside near the Broxburn Estate in Dunbar should also make contact with police.

Det Insp Stuart Hood, who is leading the investigation said: “We are still trying to piece together the circumstances surrounding both of these incidents.

“However, we are confident they are linked.

“If you were in the Dolphin Inn around closing time, we are very keen to speak to you.

“Likewise, we are also keen to hear from anyone who saw the Toyota Celica on or around the A1 and who has information as to its movements before the collision.”

The crash caused long tailbacks on the A1.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Wrangling threatens nature panel

Extinctions of top-level predators like the bluefin are just one aspect of biodiversity arguments

Political wrangling threatens to derail plans to establish a global science panel to assess the loss of nature.

Governments agreed earlier this to set up the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

But moves being made at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting here threaten to block ratification by the UN General Assembly.

Conservation groups believe IPBES could prove essential in persuading leaders to ramp up measures to protect nature.

Proponents, including many governments, believe it can play the same role for biodiversity as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has played in that field – taking authoritative analyses of relevant science directly to policymakers.

“The IPCC has become the go-to organisation for state-of-the-art knowledge on climate change,” said Neville Ash, head of the Ecosystem Managament Programme with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

“You could envisage IPBES becoming the same kind of body for the Convention on Biological Diversity, for governments, and beyond governments – the go-to source of information on biodiversity and ecosystem services.”

Government delegates here at the CBD meeting are divided on a number of issues, and some – particularly from the developing world – are insisting on an all-or-nothing approach to negotiations.

Four arrests over man’s ‘torture’

Police in Scotland were involved in a joint operation with Portuguese police

Four British men have been arrested following the disappearance of a Scotsman in Portugal.

James Ross, 26, of Wick, was traced and taken to hospital after an operation involving Northern Constabulary and the Policia Judiciaria.

It has been claimed Mr Ross was held for 13 days and tortured.

The four men, whose names have not been released, have appeared in court in Portugal on serious criminal charges, according to Northern Constabulary.

“Mr Ross has been recovered safely by officers in Portugal”

Northern Constabulary

According to reports Mr Ross had an ear, two fingers and three toes cut off and was kept in a cage in a row over an unpaid debt.

Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha claimed Mr Ross was tortured for 13 days before escaping from his captors in the village of Boliqueime, near the town of Loule, on Monday.

Police in Portugal and Scotland have not commented on the torture claims.

Northern Constabulary said it was alerted to Mr Ross’s disappearance by a report to police in Wick of a “high risk” missing person.

Operation Aniseed was launched in conjunction with Portugal’s judicial police with assistance from the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency.

A spokesman at Northern Constabulary said: “This operation culminated in the arrest of four UK nationals on serious criminal charges in Portugal and they have now appeared in court.

“The investigation continues in tandem with the Portuguese authorities. Mr Ross has been recovered safely by officers in Portugal.”

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said: ‘We can confirm the hospitalisation of a British National on 18 October in Faro, Portugal.

“We stand ready to provide consular assistance.”

A spokeswoman said consular assistance had been offered to the families of all the British Nationals the FCO was in contact with.

She added: “We stand ready to provide assistance to those we are yet to speak to.”

The Policia Judiciaria told BBC Scotland News website they were unable to comment at this stage, but believed the four men had appeared in court.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Police helicopter ‘may be scrapped’

South Yorkshire’s chief constable expresses concern the force’s Sheffield-based helicopter may be scrapped.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Three peers suspended from Lords

Baroness Uddin, Lord Paul and Lord Bhatia

Three peers have been suspended from the House of Lords and told to repay expenses after wrongly claiming tens of thousands of pounds.

Baroness Uddin has been suspended until Easter 2012 and told to repay £125,349.

Lord Paul has been suspended for four months and cross bencher Lord Bhatia for eight months. Both have already repaid substantial sums.

Peers approved the measures recommended by the House of Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee.

Baroness Uddin has already been suspended from the Labour Party and Lord Paul has resigned his Labour Party membership.

Lord Paul has already paid £41,982 and Lord Bhatia has paid back £27,446.

The House of Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee looked into their claims following allegations that peers had been deliberately designating little-used properties outside London as their “main homes”.

It meant they could claim overnight allowances, which had been worth £174 a night, to stay near Westminster when Parliament was sitting as well as travel expenses.

“We do not consider that a bolt hole as described by Lady Uddin could fall within any natural understanding of the term main residence”

House of Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee

cThe committee’s report, published earlier this week, notes that all three of those investigated “had long-established London residences, in which they spent the bulk of their time, before acquiring a ‘main residence’ outside London, in which they spent a much smaller portion of their time”.

Between 2001 and July 2005 Baroness Uddin told the Lords authorities her “main home” was a house owned by her brother and sister-in-law in Frinton-on-Sea in Essex. Between August 2005 and January 2010 she said it was a flat she owned in Maidstone, Kent.

The committee notes that a three-bedroom house in Wapping, east London, rented from a Housing Association has been her family home since 1993.

It said she had described both the Essex and Kent properties as a “bolt hole” – but said that did not alter the fact that her home, her family and social life were in London.

“We do not consider that a bolt hole as described by Lady Uddin could fall within any natural understanding of the term main residence. A bolt hole is merely a place of escape,” the committee found.

It said Baroness Uddin should repay £125,349 – saying claims were “made wrongly and in bad faith” – and be suspended until the end of the current parliamentary session, around Easter 2012.

“I am disappointed that I seem to have been treated more harshly than others”

Lord Paul

The Labour peer and donor Lord Paul “freely admitted” he never spent a night at the one-bedroom flat in Oxfordshire he designated as his “main residence” between late 2005 and end end of July 2006, the report said.

The report on his claims states: “Lord Paul explained his interpretation of the term ‘main residence’ by reference to his cultural background.

“He insisted that ‘anyone coming out of India would not understand what main residence means’. He accepted that he had ‘not once’ looked at the guidance on the back of the claim forms.”

The committee said they could not claim, on the balance of probabilities, that he acted dishonestly or in bad faith but added: “However, his actions were utterly unreasonable and demonstrated gross irresponsibility and negligence.”

As he had already repaid the money it said he should be suspended for four months.

Responding to the report Lord Paul said: “I am disappointed that I seem to have been treated more harshly than others.”

He said the rules were unclear but he would accept the committee’s decision.

Lord Bhatia was criticised for designating a property in Reigate, Surrey, as his main home between October 2007 and January 2009.

The peer has owned a family home in Hampton, greater London, for nearly 20 years but told the committee he had rented the Reigate property as he was considering “downsizing” as he got older.

An investigation suggested he spent 30% of weekends there when Parliament was sitting and he shared the property with his brother, who was the first named tenant on the lease. He continued to spend weekdays in Hampton, the committee said.

An earlier inquiry by a Lords sub-committee suggested he had rented the flat “for the benefit of his brother” – who has lived there continuously while Lord Bhatia’s visits were limited to “occasional days or weekends”. Lord Bhatia claimed that the committee had “ambushed” him with “extremely hostile” questioning.

“There can be no more second home scandals in the House of Lords”

Lord Strathcylde Leader of the Lords

The committee found he did “not act in good faith” in the way he designated his “main home” – for the purposes of claiming an overnight allowance – nor in mileage claimed for journeys to that property, in Reigate. It said he should be suspended for eight months but noted he had already repaid the £27,446.

A Labour Party spokesman said Baroness Uddin had been suspended from the party and may face disciplinary action, while Lord Paul had resigned his party membership.

“The Labour Party expects the highest standards of its representatives and fully supports the committee’s report,” he said.

Leader of the Lords Lord Strathclyde said he was “shocked and dismayed” by the report and said the measures would be “some of the toughest handed down in modern times, but in my judgment they are fully justified”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Nokia planning to cut 1,800 jobs

Nokia’s new chief, Stephen Elop, says the company needs to rethink its place in the market

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has said it is to cut 1,800 jobs.

It made the announcement as it reported a net profit of 529m euros ($741m; £471m) for the three months to September, after a loss of 559m euros a year ago.

Nokia, the biggest handset maker in the world, said it had sold 110 million handsets – 2% up from last year.

The company’s new boss, Stephen Elop, said Nokia needed to review its place in the industry.

Mr Elop, formerly with Microsoft and the first non-Finn to lead the company, took charge last month,

He said the company was facing “a remarkably disruptive time” and needed to reassess its role.

Nokia warned its market share would shrink.

Sales of its smartphones, the fastest-growing section of the market, grew by 61% from a year ago to 26.5 million units, but the company is facing tough competition from Apple’s iPhone and phones using Google’s Android operating system.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.