ALL party leaders spoke out last night over the decision to award legal aid to three Labour MPs charged with fiddling expenses.

Court officials confirmed David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine would receive legal aid. The three are due to stand trial later this year on charges of false accounting.

Tory leader David Cameron immediately promised to act to ensure that it could not be repeated.

“What a complete outrage. What a complete outrage. The people who wouldn’t even stand in the dock and answer the charges now expect all of you to pay for their defence.”

“Well, I can tell you something – we are having a review of legal aid under a Conservative government.”

The decision was also condemned by Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, who said the MPs should never have even applied for legal aid.

“It’s absurd that well-to-do MPs on double national average earnings and extra expenses to boot should be entitled to legal aid when so many more deserving cases have been refused,” he said.

The intervention of the opposition parties threatened to catapult the issue in the General Election debate.

The timing of the disclosure was particularly unfortunate for Labour which had been hoping that the focus yesterday would be on its manifesto launch.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said last night he was “puzzled” by the award of legal aid to the MPs and acknowledged the public would be “hopping mad” over the decision.