Ex-Labour minister Elliot Morley jailed for 16 months over expenses

Elliot Morley became the first former minister to be jailed for cheating his expenses when he was sentenced to 16 months today.

Morley, a former Labour environment minister, pleaded guilty last month to claiming more than £30,000 in bogus mortgage payments.

He entered two guilty pleas for false accounting relating to his home in Winterton, near Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, between 2004 and 2007.

Morley was sentenced at London's Southwark Crown Court.

A Labour Party spokesman said: "Elliot Morley had already been suspended from the Labour Party and following his custodial sentence he has now been excluded from the party."