Parliamentry Priviledge - should it be reviewed

[barney15c]

In light of the Westminster 4 being charged under the theft act possibly using parliamentry priviledge to worm themselves out of prosecution, it it time / likely that this loophole should be closed or it it the last refuge for MP's to escape justice?

[fredpuli47]

It doesn't apply. If it did, then every serving MP would avoid prosecution for any crime they committed when Parliament was sitting.To argue more narrowly that it should apply to crimes committed by MPs which they could only commit because they were MPs (false accounting in expenses claims as MPs, obtaining by fraud payments payable only to MPs) is nonsense because there's no legal principle to show as a reason for that distinction.
What's more interesting is whether they can claim privilege in respect of documents which the prosecution seek to put in evidence.That's not a privilege unique to MPs but you could try to find some ground for extending it to some documents which came into existence in their role as MPs, along the lines of Parliamentary privilege protecting their statements in the chamber of the House. (It wouldn't work, but it's worth exploring )

[jno]

parliamentary privilege is meant to protect the monarch from seizing their power and to allow them to speak their minds freely in parliement without risking libel suits. It's hard to see how it could relate to duck islands and so forth. I hope fredpuli is correct in saying it won't allow them to escape.

[bazwillrun]

the fact that these thieves want to try and invoke this archaic rule from the 1600's proves that they still think they are above the law, they still dont "get it"

[fredpuli47]

Exactly, bazwillrun.The fact that they've already let it be known that they want to use parliamentary privilege to escape conviction, either as a blanket defence or to exclude the incriminating documents, counts very heavily against them. The jury will have read of that and think that proves how guilty they know they are ! It won't work. A person cannot claim privllege in respect of documents used to commit the very crime with which they are charged .Otherwise I could claim that a threat to kill the other party unless he settled my court claim by paying £1 milion, a threat made in 'without prejudice' correspondence by my solicitor on my instructions, would give me a defence to blackmail and threats to kill charges.

[R1Geezer]

I can't see how they think it applies, as others have said, it is designed to allow MP's to say what they like in the house. Can't see how that allows them to get away with theft.

[barney15c]

Something of interest to the thread:
http://news.bbc.co.uk..._politics/8502026.stm