Ex-MP leaves prison

Expenses cheat Jim Devine looked haggard and gaunt on his release from Standford Hill prison in Kent yesterday. The disgraced former Labour MP for Livingston served four months of a 16-month jail sentence after submitting invoices for bogus cleaning and printing work totalling £8,385 at the height of the expenses scandal. The 58-year-old will be unable to return to frontline politics with Labour for at least five years after being expelled by the party. Any comeback bid after that would need to be weighed up by officials, although friends said they would be “surprised” if he attempted a return. While in prison Devine complained about the difficulties of getting a fair trial in the internet age, saying his reputation was “trashed” online. Devine became the third parliamentarian to be jailed over the expenses scandal when he was sent to prison in March.