Speaker says MPs accused of serious crimes could be barred from Parliament

Commons speaker has said he could look to roll out new powers to ban MPs accused of serious crimes from the Parliamentary estate. 

Following his arrest over rape charges on Tuesday, a Conservative MP in his 50s has been advised to stay away from Parliament, however there are no official rules requiring this. 

Quizzed on the matter by Times Radio earlier today, policing minister Kit Malthouse said: “We have to take care here. First of all I obviously can’t comment on current investigations and far be it for me to give advice to the Speaker. 

“But we have to take care when we are overriding the democratic decisions of the British public. I have been elected by the good people of North West Hampshire, I am there to do a job for them, fundamentally if anybody is accused of a crime they are innocent until proven guilty. 

“And so we just need to be slightly sensitive about that but I would be interested to see where the Speaker concludes after he has consulted with all the members of the House of Commons and the various people who are much more expert in these issues than me.”