Eric Illsley awaits sentencing over expenses conviction

Eric Illsley, the first MP to be convicted over the expenses scandal, is due to be sentenced later. Illsley resigned on Tuesday night after pleading guilty last month at Southwark crown court to three false accounting charges over claims for his second home. Labour is planning to trigger a byelection in his Barnsley Central seat on 3 March. Following heavy pressure, Illsley expressed "deep regret" over his actions and said he would resign before the court decided his fate. If he receives a prison term of 12 months or more he will be disqualified from being an MP under the Representation of the People Act 1981. He could theoretically have stayed on as an MP with a shorter jail term. He is believed to have been receiving his £65,000-a-year parliamentary salary over the past month – meaning he will have earned roughly £5,400 since being convicted. Labour has said it expects to move the byelection writ, and the poll will be held on 3 March. Despite the questions over his expenses, Illsley was re-elected to the seat in May with a majority of more than 11,000. On Wednesday Treasury sources confirmed that Illsley had been granted the ceremonial post of crown steward and bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham – the traditional way of resigning from parliament. Illsley joined the Labour party in 1979 and was elected as Barnsley MP for the first time in 1987. He entered the Commons with a strong background in the trade union movement, having been an NUM official for almost 10 years, including for the duration of the 1984 miners' strike. After becoming an MP he climbed the ranks to become a whip and frontbench spokesman, but when Labour came to power in 1997 he returned to the backbenches. In June 2009, as part of its revelations about MPs' expenses, the Daily Telegraph identified a number of senior MPs and ministers it accused of over-claiming for council tax on their designated second home. It said Illsley was thought to have been the worst offender, recouping more than £6,000 over and above his council tax bills since 2004 for a Band C property in Lambeth, south London. However, unlike several of his colleagues, Illsley was not disciplined by the party when the allegations emerged and was not in the first wave of four parliamentarians charged over their expenses in February last year. He retained his safe Labour seat comfortably at the general election in May, albeit with a smaller share of the vote than previously. Less than two weeks after the election he was charged with three counts of false accounting, and was suspended from the Labour party. The charges related to expenses Illsley was accused of dishonestly claiming in relation to council tax, service and maintenance charges, repairs and insurance charges, and utilities and communications charges for his second home in Renfrew Road, Kennington, south London.