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Gay MP David Laws is returning to mainstream government after spending 2 years on the backbenches following an expenses scandal. The BBC are reporting that he is set to take over the post of Children’s Minister from fellow Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather.
Laws originally left the cabinet in 2010 when it was discovered he had claimed almost £40,000 in expenses that he was actually paying in rent to his secret partner, breaking strict rules on second home expenses.
Though Mr Laws sexuality had been an open secret around Westminster for several years, the scandal forced him to come out publically for the first time. At the time Laws said: “James and I are intensely private people. We made the decision to keep our relationship private and believed that was our right. Clearly that cannot now remain the case.”
Laws’ reinstatement comes in the middle of a major cabinet reshuffle that has also seen the former Lib Dem equalities minister Lynne Featherstone replaced by Conservative MP Maria Miller.
