David Chaytor, MP for Bury North, was suspended from the Labour party today.
He is one of three Labour MPs facing criminal charges over their expenses claims and the party has withdrawn the whip from all three.
Mr Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine are being prosecuted on several counts of false accounting.
A Labour spokesman said today they had been “administratively” suspended and would lose the whip in Parliament.
The three Labour MPs vowed to put up a robust defence after their charges were detailed by Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer on Friday.
They argue that they should have been dealt with by the Commons authorities rather than the police.
Mr Starmer said the MPs’ lawyers had already indicated they were considering using parliamentary privilege as a defence.
Commons Leader Harriet Harman insisted today that she was “completely satisfied” that parliamentary privilege did not apply to cases like theft or fraud.
“The criminal law applies to MPs just the same as it does to everyone else,” she told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, adding that Mr Starmer appeared to think the same.
Ms Harman also warned Mr Cameron against making comments that prejudiced any of the expenses cases coming before the courts.
“He’s got to be very careful what he says or his comments might actually jeopardise the trial, and nobody wants to see that happen,” she added.
Mr Morley, a former minister and the MP for Scunthorpe, is alleged to have dishonestly claimed a total of £30,428 more than he was entitled to in second home expenses.
Mr Chaytor faces charges that he wrongly claimed more than £18,000 in rent and £1,950 for IT services.
Livingston MP Mr Devine is alleged to have dishonestly claimed £3,240 for cleaning services and £5,505 for stationery.
They will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court - a few hundred yards from Parliament - on March 11. If found guilty, they could face jail sentences of up to seven years.
Conservative leader David Cameron, in a speech at the University of East London, said Mr Brown had shown he was not capable of dealing with the issues involved in reforming Parliament.
He described the decision to withdraw the whip from the three Labour MPs charged over the expenses scandal as a “humiliating” climbdown.
Mr Cameron accused the Prime Minister of helping to create the culture at Westminster that led to the expenses scandal and the collapse of public confidence in politics.
“How Gordon Brown can claim to be a reformer with a straight face I just don’t know,” he said.
“He can’t reform the institution because he is the institution: he made it.
“The character of his Government - secretive, power-hoarding, controlling - is his character.
“Just as he’s the roadblock to public service reform, he’s the roadblock to political reform.”
