Labour's former law chief tries to dodge drive ban



Excuses ignored: Former MP Vera Baird leaves Pontypridd Magistrates Court where she was banned from driving for six months yesterday

The former Labour Solicitor General tried to dodge a driving ban yesterday by claiming 'hardship' after being kicked out as an MP at the General election.

Barrister Vera Baird - who occupied the £125,000-a-year post for Gordon Brown until last month - was caught on camera speeding at 98mph.

But she claimed a ban would cause her 'excessive hardship' because she needed her car to wind up her affairs after losing her seat in Redcar, Cleveland.

And she told magistrates the punishment would cost taxpayers more money, as she is still eligible to claim MPs' expenses and would have to file a bill for taxi fares for the delivery of her paperwork.

The QC tried to persuade the court to allow her to keep her licence after researching the speeding laws.

But magistrates banned her for six months for the offence on the M4 near Cardiff.

Baird lost her seat to the Liberal Democrats with the highest swing against any Labour candidate in the country.

She told the court: 'I need my car because I have up to 800 files dealing with cases involving my former constituents.

'They didn't expect me to stop being able to assist them and, frankly, neither did I.'

She said she needed her car to deliver the case files back to people who had asked for her help.

And she added that the cost of sending them by taxi would have to be met from the public purse through the 'winding-up allowance' for MPs who lose their seats.

'There does not seem a lot of point in that,' she said.

Magistrates at Pontypridd, South Wales, decided the widow, who is also an author, would not suffer hardship because she has an employee to carry out the work.

The barrister already had seven points on her licence and was given a further five, which earned her the driving ban under the totting-up procedure.

She was also fined £400 after admitting speeding in her silver Hyundai coupe.

The court heard she was driving to visit an elderly female friend who had been injured in a fall.

She said: 'I had driven from Redcar to London, then on to Limeslade Bay west of Swansea. I was visiting my 67-year-old friend who had fallen and we were due to go on holiday the next week.

'She was hurt and feeling guilty about the holiday and depressed. I was uniquely the person to go and cheer her up.

'I can only imagine that somewhere toward the end of my journey unfortunately I went too fast.'

The court heard three of Baird's speeding points expired yesterday - the day of her hearing.

However the totting-up procedure still applied because they were on her licence when she was caught last August. After the case, Baird, of Crouch Hill, London, said: 'It was a fast bit of driving. I have no complaints, the magistrates listened carefully and were perfectly reasonable.

'I did think they were good arguments of mine but the magistrates considered with care and I can't ask for any more than that.'

Baird was criticised last year when she attempted to put through controversial expenses claims.

She put through a £286 for 'miscellaneous items' but Commons officials refused to pay after spotting the receipts were for Christmas decorations.