Jailed peer claims £100,000 expenses

A former Labour MP jailed for fire-raising has claimed £100,000 in Lords expenses while on early release from prison.

Lord Watson, a Labour MP from 1989 to 1997, was jailed for 16 months after setting fire to curtains in an Edinburgh hotel during a drunken incident. But he has claimed up to £308 a day in expenses while on probation from May 2006. He has voted on only about a quarter of the days he attended the Lords, spoke only five times in the past year and has not tabled any written questions.

Despite being expelled by Labour over the conviction, Lord Watson is one of the party's staunchest supporters. The revelation adds to the pressure on the Government to strip peerages from those convicted of criminal offences.