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I would like to apologise to my constituents, family and friends, following my court appearance, for the distress and embarrassment caused by my actions that I deeply, deeply regret
Eric Illsley MP
Eric Illsley has announced he will stand down as an MP after pleading guilty to charges of fraud related to the misuse of his parliamentary expenses.
The Barnsley Central MP came under pressure to quit his seat after it emerged he could remain an MP and draw his salary if he was sentenced to less than 12 months in prison.
In a statement issued today Illsley said: "I would like to apologise to my constituents, family and friends, following my court appearance, for the distress and embarrassment caused by my actions that I deeply, deeply regret.
"I have begun to wind down my parliamentary office, following which I will resign from Parliament before my next court appearance. I will be making no further comment."
The former Labour MP faced three charges related to claims for council tax, service charges and maintenance, repairs and utility bills between 2005 and 2008
He was suspended from the Labour Party following the allegations and sat as an independent following his re-election in 2010.
Speaking after Illsey's guilty plea yesterday, Simon Clements, head of the CPS Special Crime Division said the MP had betrayed his constituents.
"By his guilty pleas he has accepted that he was dishonest in making these claims. As an elected representative, Eric Illsley took advantage of the trust placed in him by his constituents to act honourably on their behalf," he said.
"Instead, he siphoned off public money into his own pockets and betrayed those who rightly expected the highest standards of integrity from him as a Member of Parliament."
The veteran MP who once revealed a scandal of double-charging by solicitors, Illsley saw his career crash and burn when he was discovered to have been cheating on his expenses.
The fourth Labour MP to face charges after the expenses revelations of 2009, Illsley was charged under the Theft Act with dishonestly obtaining more than £20,000 in claims for council tax, repairs, utility bills and other domestic expenses for his second home in London over a three-year period.
After first denying the charges, he eventually admitted fraudulently claiming a lesser sum of about £14,500.
Until the expenses scandal broke he had had a long career as a popular and hardworking MP.
A former NUM administrator with a law degree, he gained his seat in 1987 after the retirement of Roy Mason. His majority in 1997 was 24,501, making it Labour's sixth safest seat, though it had more than halved by 2010.
He was a Whip in Opposition, but was not promoted to the Government in 1997, despite having held several shadow portfolios, including health, local government and Northern Ireland. Instead he turned his attention to committee work.
He served on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from 1997 and the Procedure Committee for nearly twenty years. Since 2000 he has been on the Chairmen’s Panel, chairing Bill committees. He is on the executive of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and chaired the Committee on Yorkshire and the Humber for a year.
Proud of his working-class Yorkshire roots, he was born in 1955, went to grammar school in Barnsley and read law at Leeds University. He went straight to work for the National Union of Mineworkers, becoming head of its administration in 1984.
For many years he was loyal and mainstream, though he was one of fifty-four Labour MPs who rebelled on the cuts in invalidity benefit in the Welfare Reform Bill in 1999. He also voted against the privatisation of air traffic services and against the Iraq war.
But his loyalty finally cracked in 2004 through his long-term opposition to university tuition fees. Stung by Tony Blair’s claims that rebel backbenchers were betraying the interests of the country, he riposted that it was the Prime Minister who was doing the betraying, going back on a manifesto promise.
He was equally exasperated by the feud between Blair and Gordon Brown, describing it as “bloody childish”. He went on to support a rebel amendment on the replacement of Trident nuclear weapons in 2007.
He was active in all-party groups concerned with the packaging industry and occupational pensions. An expert in personal injury compensation, he has strong views on poverty and inequality, especially in health.
He used to be a regular contributor to debates, on topics including local government finance, climate change, pensions, Barnsley Council, coal, teachers' pay, Lloyds TSB (he steered a private Bill through), further education colleges, waste recycling, regulation of paediatricians and a local respite centre. But he has made only infrequent contributions in the current Parliament.
He once said his proudest achievement was helping to reveal that solicitors were double charging elderly and infirm clients in claims over coal-related diseases.
He once called on the Royal family to attend more football matches. He is a paid parliamentary adviser to the Caravan Club. Married with two daughters, he used to employ one of them as his caseworker.
Last Friday former Labour MP David Chaytor was sentenced to 18 months in prison for making false parliamentary expenses claims totalling £18,350.
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