I'm ashamed of my cabinet minister son: Father of disgraced David Laws says the Lib Dem deserves to be in jail over expenses

• David Laws's father Tony is embarrassed for his son after an expenses scandal that destroyed several MPs' reputations
• It was revealed Laws had been guilty of a serious expenses fiddle totalling more than £50,000 and involving his secret gay lover
• Laws and his father have not spoken in 15 years

David Laws resigned as the Coalition's Chief Secretary to the Treasury after it was revealed he had fiddled with expenses totalling more than £50,000 and involving his secret gay lover

When David Laws resigned as the Coalition’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury after only 17 days, he made history as the shortest-serving Cabinet minister in modern times.
The man charged with reducing the country’s £156  billion deficit sensationally quit after it was revealed he had been guilty of a serious expenses fiddle totalling more than £50,000 and involving his secret gay lover.
This was hugely embarrassing for the Lib Dem MP, one of the cleverest men at Westminster (with a double first in Economics from Cambridge) who was once dubbed ‘Mr Integrity’ by former party leader Paddy Ashdown, his predecessor as MP for Yeovil.
The expenses scandal that ripped through Westminster had already destroyed several reputations. Some MPs ended up in prison, while many lost their seats. 
David Laws, with his trademark white shirts, Hermes ties and polished shoes, was the only Cabinet minister to lose his job.
At the time, some of his closest friends feared he was so ashamed of the scandal and the revelation he was gay that he would quit politics altogether.
However, he bided his time on the backbenches and was forgiven by David Cameron and Nick Clegg. They brought him back as Education Minister in last month’s ministerial reshuffle. As a result, the 46-year-old is now back in the Government, can attend Cabinet meetings and enjoyed a starring role at this week’s Lib Dem conference in Brighton.
Many in Westminster think he was lucky to be given a second chance — particularly so soon — since the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee had criticised his behaviour, having accused him of a ‘series of serious breaches of the rules over a considerable  period of time’.
He was suspended from Parliament for seven days having already repaid £56,500 to the Commons authorities.

Growing up: David Laws (far right) with his adopted brother and sister Peter and Jacquelyn and father Tony who says he was embarrassed for his son

Many respected observers said he should have had the decency to wait until his constituents had re-elected him, and shown that they had confidence in his probity and integrity, before re-entering the Government.
Among those critics are Laws’s father, Tony.
The retired City banker contacted the Mail this week because he said he wanted to dispute several claims made by his son about his family as he attempted to explain the background to his expenses fiddle.
Tony Laws says: ‘I was embarrassed my son had been caught taking money he was not entitled to. I think David was damn lucky that further action wasn’t taken against him, as I know some MPs went to prison.’
Referring to the fact that his son had tried to make political capital out of other Labour and Tory MPs’ expenses fiddles before his own were exposed, his father says: ‘And what was he thinking of, moralising about other MPs? He should have counted his lucky stars that he had got away with it and said nothing.’  Asked if he was happy that his son was now back in government, Tony Laws says: ‘I’m pleased for him, but I think he has gone back too soon. He should have waited until after the general election to let his constituents deliver their verdict on what he did.’ He adds: ‘I am sure he would be forgiven.’

Come back: Laws was brought back as Education Minister in last month's ministerial reshuffle and enjoyed a starring role at this week's Lib Dem conference in Brighton, pictured

It is not only Laws’s speedy return to ministerial office that has perturbed his father. He is also upset by the nature of his son’s emotional statement, announcing his resignation two years ago, when the politician said he recognised that he had neglected ‘those I love’ and that he intended to make amends.
It was in May 2010, just weeks after the Coalition was formed, when it was revealed that David Laws had funnelled £40,000 of taxpayers’ money to his secret gay lover, Westminster lobbyist Jamie Lundie.
Over a period of five years, the MP claimed between £700 and £950 a month to rent a room in Kennington, South London, from Mr Lundie. This broke Commons rules, which bar MPs from claiming for payments to a partner.

'I've no difficulty whatsoever with him being gay'

Mr Laws immediately issued an apology and announced he had paid back the money claimed for rent and other housing costs. He said: ‘I regret this situation deeply, accept that I should not have claimed  my expenses in this way and apologise fully.’
He went on to say he and his boyfriend were ‘intensely private people’, adding: ‘We made the decision to keep our relationship private and believed that was our right. 
‘My motivation throughout has not been to maximise profit but simply to protect our privacy and my wish not to reveal my sexuality.’
He added: ‘Our relationship has been unknown to both family and friends throughout that time.’
In truth, the couple had been together for nine years. But the MP’s friends briefed journalists that he had been trying to protect his elderly parents, who are devout Catholics, from the truth about his homosexuality.
However, Laws’s father, to whom David has not spoken in 15 years following a rift that Tony still finds inexplicable, claims this was very misleading. He says the truth is that he has not been to church for decades, although he was christened a Catholic.
‘It is beyond a joke to call me a devout Catholic,’ says Tony. ‘As early as the age of seven, I was crossing my sister’s palm with silver to cover up for the fact I was playing cricket and football instead of going to church.
‘When David said he was going to remedy the neglect of the people he loved, I thought he might be referring to me. But since I have still not heard from him, I was clearly wrong.’

No surprise: Tony said that when Laws resigned, acknowledging publicly his sexuality came as no surprise to him, saying 'I realised it at least 20 years ago. There were signs'

Tony Laws is also angry that friends of David were quoted at the time of the expenses scandal as saying the MP was trying to do the right thing to shield his aged parents. 
‘Well, I suppose at 76 I am “aged”, but I simply don’t accept David lied over his Commons expenses to protect me,’ says Tony. ‘He was trying to protect himself — because I have no difficulty whatsoever with the fact that he is gay.’ 
Then there were the claims by the MP’s friends that he was an only child. His father says these were ‘very hurtful’, because the truth is that the MP has an adopted older brother and adopted younger sister. 
‘We all used to be so close,’ says Tony Laws.
In fact, David Laws’s entry on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has stated for years that he is the ‘only son of a Conservative-voting father and a Labour-supporting mother’. He has joked that, as a Lib Dem himself, he was the ‘perfect fusion’.
When told about the Wikipedia entry, Tony Laws became angry and emotional: ‘I can’t believe it! My blood is going hot and cold. It is  so hurtful.’
Tony Laws separated from David’s mother, Maureen, when their son was getting ready to go to university and the couple divorced 24 years ago. But they would meet up for important family occasions such as David’s graduation from Cambridge in 1987. 

'He simply lost interest in me as his father'

‘The end of my marriage was a tragedy, but David never talked to me about it,’ says Tony Laws. ‘I spoke to my other children, but David was not open to discussion.’ 
As for David’s sexuality, his father says he realised his son was gay when he was in his 20s.
‘When he resigned from the Cabinet, he publicly acknowledged his sexuality. It came as no surprise to me. I realised it at least 20 years ago. There were signs. Over time you come to recognise what is happening. I was his father. You see things.
‘David never had a relationship with a female, but there were always male friends. 
‘As a father, I want my children to be happy. Their sexuality is of no concern to me.
‘David is a very private person.  As a young boy he was positively secretive. I’m glad he now feels able to be open.’
David Laws’s father recalls his three children’s early years in Surrey’s stockbroker belt.
In interviews, David has described ‘a pretty comfortable upbringing’, saying his parents were ‘reasonably easy-going’. 
His father worked long hours at JP Morgan Chase bank to put his children through private education. David attended the fee-paying St George’s College in Weybridge before going on to Cambridge.
Explaining how he and his wife adopted a child before David was born, Tony Laws says: ‘Nature  didn’t deliver in a timely fashion. So when we didn’t succeed in having a baby, we adopted a boy who we called Peter.

Brought back: Nick Clegg, left, and David Cameron, right, brought Laws back when even some of his closest friends feared he was so ashamed of the scandal that he would quit politics

‘My wife became pregnant with David barely a year later. We wanted to equal it up, so we adopted our daughter, Jacquelyn. They were great children.’
Peter, who studied biochemistry at Oxford, is an accountant in London and is married with two daughters. Jacquelyn, who worked for a merchant bank, is also happily married. They are in regular contact with their father, but have little to do with David, who has never referred to their existence in any interviews. 
Like father, like son: David went into investment banking at JP Morgan and Barclays de Zoete Wedd.
He retired at 28 already a multi-millionaire and went to work for the Lib Dems in 1994. 
Within three years he was head of policy and research and then was selected as the party’s candidate in Yeovil for the 2001 election. By now, there was no contact between father and son.
Tony, who now lives in a modern home in Axminster in Devon with his second wife, Tamara, explains the rift.

'It's too late for a reconciliation with David now'

‘There was no row, no major fallout, I just think David lost interest in me as his dad,’ says Tony. ‘We haven’t spoken for the best part of 15 years — even though he lives only eight miles away.’ 
In fact, he only learned of his son’s parliamentary ambitions when he appeared on a local TV bulletin announcing his Yeovil candidacy. Tony says David later visited his home and left a note. 
‘That is the last contact I have had from my son,’ he explains. ‘When he was campaigning to be an MP in 2001, he must have been in the locality but he never came to see me.’ 
Mr Laws tried to contact his son after he won the seat. ‘I was thrilled for him. What father wouldn’t be? I wrote a letter, drove to his house, and pushed it through his letter box at 5.30am. 
‘I like to think it was the first letter he received addressed to David Laws MP. I never received any acknowledgement of the card.’
There was no contact between the two men — the only way  he saw his son was when he appeared on TV.

Some of those appearances involved the high-profile Lib Dem MP adopting a lofty tone of moral superiority in 2008 when Tory and Labour MPs were caught fiddling their expenses.
For example, Laws issued a press release aimed at trying to reinforce his image as ‘Mr Integrity’. He boasted: ‘The (official) report into MPs’ expenses has been published today and this confirms that David Laws has not been asked to repay any of his expenses, as it found all his claims for London living costs to be in order.’

Like father, like son: Laws went into investment banking at JP Morgan and Barclays de Zoete Wedd, pictured

He also tried to score points at the expense of his political opponents locally. ‘Over half of MPs (390 out of 650) have been ordered to repay expenses, including many from the Somerset and Dorset area,’ he said.
He listed the names of several MPs and how much they had to repay. These included Oliver Letwin, a Tory facing a fierce Lib Dem challenge at the time, who now sits around the same Cabinet table as Mr Laws.
But the £3,000 Mr Letwin had to repay was dwarfed by the £56,500 that ‘Mr Integrity’ had to give back to the taxpayer when his own expenses fiddle was unearthed two years later.
Laws’s subsequent resignation as Chief Secretary to the Treasury was another blow to his father.
Does Tony think there can now be a reconciliation with his son?
‘Not now. I think it’s too late,’  he says.
Only days before his spectacular fall in 2010, David Laws was asked about his marital status. As  ever, the image-conscious MP answered: ‘Single.’
That was slightly disingenuous considering that he had been in a relationship for nine years with his partner Mr Lundie, who used to work for former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy.
Whether he was misguided about trying to hide his sexuality is hard to tell. 
But the fact is, as David Laws has discovered, most people don’t care if their MP is gay or straight.
The truth is that it’s hypocrisy and fraudulent behaviour over expenses that they can’t bear.