Expel convicted peers, says Clegg

Mr Clegg said, in the most serious cases, peers should be expelled

Peers convicted of a crime and facing a jail sentence should be expelled from Parliament, Nick Clegg has said.

The Lib Dem leader said there should not be "one rule for lawmakers and another for everyone else".

Calls for tougher rules on peers who do paid consultancy work have followed claims that four Labour peers were ready to take money to help amend laws.

Currently peers cannot be expelled or suspended, only "named and shamed". The four peers involved deny wrongdoing.

In a speech to Unlock Democracy on trust in politics, Mr Clegg says the political system "too often operates on the myth that tradition should somehow always be trusted."

Faith in politics

He says current sanctions are "weak" and, if the peers involved in the most recent allegations were found guilty by a Lords probe, the most they would have to do is apologise.

"This case exposes the extraordinary protection enjoyed by the political class. One rule for lawmakers and another for everyone else," says Mr Clegg.

He called for new laws to allow guilty peers to be expelled.

Lord Snape and Lord Taylor of Blackburn respond to newspaper accusations

House of Lords leader Lady Royall has already said tougher sanctions are needed and Tony Wright, chairman of the Commons public administration committee, said faith in the political process would be diminished without reform.

On Monday, two of the Labour peers at the centre of claims they offered to help amend laws for up to