Malik steps down from justice post

Shahid Malik has become the latest victim of ongoing expenses revelations, stepping down as justice minister.

The move came just hours after he appeared on Sky News to insist that he had not broken any rules.

His case had been highlighted in the Daily Telegraph, with details of how he claimed the maximum allowance for his second home.

Number 10 said an investigation of whether Malik broke the ministerial code would be undertaken, with the expectation that he would resume his ministerial post in the coming days if he is cleared.

The Labour MP ran up the highest expenses of any MP, claiming £66,827 over three years for his second home, as well as £730 on a massage chair.

Malik defended his expenses, insisting that the chair was a legitimate purchase.

He stated: "The one thing I am clear about is that the rules are in complete tatters. I was a new MP. Everything I did, I asked before I did it because I didn't want to be doing anything that was against the rules."

But the minister admitted that he would not be repaying the expenses, insisting that he was "as straight as they come".

Another Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz declared that he might have "over-reacted" by repaying £2,675 in expenses.

"Why on earth am I bothering to pay back the money? That's actually the view which has come back from a large number of people I have been in contact with," he told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme.

"I do wonder to a certain extent whether, in some hysterical atmosphere in Westminster during the week, possibly I over-reacted to the situation.

"Speaking to some of the Lib Dem MPs in particular who have paid some sums of money for relatively small items, I do wonder if some of us have been as it were taken along in a situation where maybe we shouldn't.

"Having said that, I've said I'll pay it back, I will pay it back, because I actually accept at the end of the day the fundamental principle that MPs shouldn't actually benefit from property they have acquired."

Meanwhile, in a YouGov poll for the Sun, Labour slumped to its lowest ever poll rating.

Labour was on just 22 per cent, compared with the Conservatives on 41 per cent and the Lib Dems on 19 per cent.