SCUNTHORPE MP Elliot Morley may not get a £65,000 retirement bonus from the House of Commons when he steps down in May.

Commons Speaker John Bercow has announced the one-off 'golden goodbye' payment will not be given to three Labour MPs facing charges until court proceedings have finished.

Mr Morley would forfeit the payment, worth a year's salary and based on length of service, if he resigned before the General Election.

The 57-year-old former environment minister was charged last week with two counts of false accounting relating to a total of £30,428 of mortgage expenses claimed between April 2004 and November 2007. Mr Morley denies the charges.

Mr Bercow has written to the Clerk of the House of Commons Malcolm Jack telling him to "suspend any payments which would otherwise be due and attributable to the Resettlement Grant in any case where criminal proceedings are brought in relation to any claim for expenses until the criminal proceedings have been finally disposed of".

Mr Morley had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

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