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Download MP3Prosecutors in Britain filed the first criminal charges against lawmakers accused of abusing the government’s expense reimbursement system. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with the BBC’s Rob Watson, who’s covering the story in London.

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MARCO WERMAN: In Britain it’s not the national debt that’s making headlines today, it’s a case about politicians profiting from illegal expense claims.  The scandal involves claims by hundreds of law makers who allegedly abuse the government’s expense reimbursement system.  Claims involve everything from digging a moat, to buying flat screen TV’s.  For months the story involved disclosures and a lot of embarrassment for lawmakers.  Today prosecutors filed the first criminal charges.  The BBC’s Rob Watson is covering the story in London.  Rob, digging a moat?  Is that the worst of the claims?  The most bold or are they still worse?

ROB WATSON: Well, in some ways the story started off as almost something of a giggle laughing about people trying to claim for digging moats around their country houses, or claiming for over $300.00 worth for two grapefruit bowls.  Claiming for flagpoles, gardening expenses, you name it.  But now it’s taken a quite different turn and a really dramatic, and I would say, a very problematic turn for the reputation of the British Parliament.  That is, criminal prosecutions against for Parliamentarians.  Overall, on Thursday, when the grand audit was done, if I could put it that way, it was something like a total of like 1.3 or 1.4 million dollars to be paid back.  Essentially, the audit had found that over 50% of MPs had in some way, shape, form or another overcharged the tax payer.

WERMAN: That’s how many people?

WATSON: Well you’re talking over 50% of a Parliament of 646 MPs.

WERMAN: The question that I have is these three MPs and the one peer were supposedly shielded against prosecution.  So how can this happen now?

WATSON: Well, this will no doubt be part of the defense arguments, but it’s certainly true that in Parliament you’re shielded from some things.  You’re shielded, for example, from libeling someone, but I think it’s not entirely clear as in other systems, like in France or wherever, that if you did something like, I don’t know, murder someone, that that wouldn’t offer you immunity.  What the MPs, or their defense lawyers are likely to argue something like the MPs expenses, the running of their offices that should be something that would be handled by Parliament.

WERMAN: The three MPs are in the Labor Party, Gordon Brown’s Labor Party.  How is this going to affect him?

WATSON: Well, two points.  The first point says that the whole expense as scandal, and it is a doozy of a scandal, has not been discriminating in terms of partism.  Everybody is in the soup on this one, no doubt about it.  But the second point says how does it affect the governing Labor Party?  Well, of course they’re going to be worse hit because they just got more MPs.  The other explanation, of course, is that when anything goes wrong, even if it involves all parties and all MPs, it’s always the government that tends to get the boot stuck in.

WERMAN: How are people in the U.K. Rob swallowing this scandal given just how tough the recession remains?

WATSON: Well, as you can imagine, people were absolutely furious when this first happened.  I think a lot of MPs didn’t get it because they’re earning about 64,000 pounds, which is about $80,000.00 plus all of their expenses.  They were sort of saying, well you know, it’s not very much to run something as complicated as an MPs office.  Now what they didn’t understand was there was this huge disconnect with the British public who are saying what, you’re earning over $80,000.00 and you’re on the fiddle?  I mean, people were furious and I suspect that the whole audit on Thursday, now this latest business of MPs getting prosecuted, will fire up the votes as righteous anger again.

WERMAN: The BBC’s Rob Watson in London on the expenses scandal rocking Parliament right now.  Thank you very much Rob.

WATSON: Good to be with you.

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