DISGRACED Barnsley MP Eric Illsley must go. He can no longer claim to represent the public having yesterday admitted diddling them out of £14,000.

He is automatically removed from the House of Commons if he is sentenced to a year, or more, in prison.

But if he receives less than a year, he could brazen it out, drawing an MP’s salary from the taxpayer while in prison for defrauding the same taxpayer.

That would be too much for the reputation of British politics to bear.

During the General Election, both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats spoke about the need to allow constituents to recall their MP if he, or she, goes beyond the pale. If Mr Illsley clings to his seat, there will be many who support such a law-change.

However, Labour members, including leader Ed Miliband and Middlesbrough MP Sir Stuart Bell, believe the Commons already has the power to pass a resolution expelling an MP.

If that is the case, there should be no waiting for the completion of the judicial process. MPs should show the public how determined they are to clean up the expenses sleaze by voting Mr Illsley out immediately.

There should, of course, be no need for such extreme measures. Mr Illsley is, by all accounts, a reasonable man.

He has done a fair, if unspectacular, job representing his Barnsley constituents since 1987 – he has assisted many of his former miners gain compensation for industrial diseases.

It is even possible to feel a little sorry for him – other MPs during the scandal have cheerily handed over cheques for larger amounts than £14,000 and continued with their careers.

Yet Mr Illsley has accepted that his expenses claims were more than erroneous.

They were fradulent. He must know how strongly the public feels about the expenses scandal; he must know that he has no option but to go and that every hour he clings on damages his own reputation and that of our whole political system.