British treasury minister Laws quits over expenses

Britain's Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws resigned on Saturday after revelations about his parliamentary expenses, in a move seen as trying to limit damage to the new coalition government.Ultimately I alone have the main responsibility for deciding how to react to recent events. I have therefore today spoken to the prime minister and to the deputy prime minister to inform them of my decision to stand down from my role as chief secretary with immediate effect, Laws said. Prime Minister David Cameron replaced Laws, number two to the finance minister, within 24 hours of him admitting claiming tens of thousands of pounds in parliamentary expenses for rent he passed on to his long-term partner. There are clearly questions that David himself acknowledges must now be answered about his own expenses, and he did the right thing referring himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. When these questions have been addressed, I very much hope that there will be an opportunity for him to rejoin the Government, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said. Laws, who was given a key role within the government of cutting government spending to tackle Britain's record budget deficit, was swiftly replaced by another Liberal Democrat, Scottish Secretary Danny Alexander. Alexander will now take over the role of seeing through a series of tough austerity measures needed to save Britain billions of pounds.