Straw: Maria Miller ‘unlucky’

Parliament: Labour MP Jack Straw claimed yesterday that Maria Miller was “unlucky” to be sacked as culture secretary after being caught over-claiming mortgage expenses.

Ms Miller was fired in April after offering a pitiful apology for wrongly claiming £45,000 in taxpayer’s cash.

But former Blairite minister Mr Straw said she was chased out of her job by an “extremely neurotic” press that has become “anti-politician.”

Lords replace life peer with another

Democracy: The House of Lords was dubbed an “international embarrassment” yesterday after members voted to replace the late Baron Methuen with another hereditary peer.

Lords were accused of making a “complete mockery of democracy.”

SNP MP Angus MacNeil said: “We have seen unelected peers vote for their new colleague — the prerequisite being that they already hold a hereditary title.”

Bank of Scotland avoids cartel fine

Finance: Royal Bank of Scotland avoided a fine from the European Commission yesterday after it blew the whistle on a cartel to rig the Swiss franc Libor rate.

RBS admitted it acted alongside fellow bank JP Morgan in distorting the pricing of interest rate derivatives between March 2008 and July 2009.

In a settlement, JP Morgan was fined €61.7 million (£48.6 million) but RBS was given immunity for revealing the cartel.

Britons join Isis ‘at a rate of 5 a week’

Militants: At least five Britons are travelling to Iraq and Syria to join Islamic State every week, Britain’s most senior police officer revealed yesterday.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said around 500 would-be British jihadists were already estimated to have joined the group.

But he said: “Many have returned and many will wish to do so in the coming months and perhaps in future years.”