Swraj Paul resigns as deputy speaker of House of Lords

Suggesting 'gross injustice' in his 4-month suspension from the House of Lords, NRI industrialist and Labour peer Swraj Paul has resigned as deputy speaker of the House.

Paul, who was suspended along with two other peers of Asian origin Baroness Monzila Pola Uddin and Lord Amirali Alibhai Bhatia over the issue of expenses claims paid to MPs having residences outside London, said that he had decided to resign despite the fact that the House had cleared him of any dishonesty and bad faith.

In a letter to the Speaker of the House, Paul said, "In many ways, this has been a sad saga for parliamentary democracy - an unfortunate series of events having evidently been inspired by the electoral politics of the media." This was a reference to newspaper allegations that he had shown his residence as outside London to claim some 40,000 pounds as allowances in 2005-2007 although he had thereafter returned the money.

"I am far from alone in being unable to find any rationale for the House authorities to investigate certain members, while not investigating others similarly accused," he said with reference to the fact that a number of MPs who had made similar allowances claims had not been investigated while he had been, although the police had found no case against him.

"To my mind, the situation is fraught with gross injustice and violations of which I had come to believe were norms of British fairness," Paul said in his letter of resignation.

Paul, who will return to the House when his 4-month suspension ends, continues to be a Privy Councillor.

While Paul has been suspended for a period of 4 months, Bangladesh-born Baroness Uddin and Indian-origin Lord Bhatia were suspended for 18 months and 8 months respectively.