As stings go, this is quite some sting.
Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind, two former foreign secretaries, have referred themselves to the parliamentary commissioner for standards after being secretly filmed apparently offering to use their positions to benefit a private company for thousands of pounds.
The two were named in an investigation by The Daily Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches programme. They deny any wrongdoing and both have fought back strongly this morning.
They were filmed by reporters claiming to represent a Hong Kong-based communications agency called PMR, which was seeking to hire senior British politicians to join its advisory board.
The Telegraph says they are exposed for their involvement in a new “cash for access” scandal and that they offered to use their positions as politicians on behalf of a fictitious Chinese company in return for payments of at least £5,000 per day.
All papers follow the story and The Times reports that Straw agreed to be suspended from the parliamentary Labour party. He probably had little choice.
At one meeting he is said to have described how he operated “under the radar” to use his influence to change European Union rules on behalf of a commodity company that paid him £60,000 a year.
Sir Malcolm is reported to have said that he could arrange “useful access” to every British ambassador in the world. He told reporters that he was “self-employed”, despite receiving an MP’s salary of £67,000, and said: “You’d be surprised how much free time I have.”
The disclosures are hugely embarrassing for the main parties at a time when the reputation of parliament and politicians will clearly figure in the election campaign. There is no suggestion that the two engaged in paid advocacy to change policy, which would be against the rules. But MPs may be aghast at the way they apparently emphasised their influence and at the sums of money suggested. They will also be astonished that two old political hands were taken in by the approach after several similar stings.
Sir Malcolm said on Today that the allegations were unfounded and “I will fight them with all my strength.” He accepted that it was “silly” to say that he had no salary because he did have one as an MP, but that he was referring to his business interests, for which he received no salary.
He said the basic allegation was that there was something improper about an MP being willing to take part on an advisory board of a company seeking to invest in the UK. But parliament had said it was acceptable for MPs to be paid. Otherwise about 200 MPs would not be accepting fees.
Everything had to be in the register of interests, and all his interests were registered. He claimed that Channel 4 refused to allow him to appear to answer the allegations, and added that he would be willing to say in public everything he had said to the undercover reporters.
He would not stand down as chairman of the Commons intelligence committee unless his colleagues wanted him to: “One has nothing to do with the other.” He was angry and irritated. He had nothing to be embarrassed about. Rifkind will see the Tory chief whip later, the BBC reports.
On Today, Straw said he was mortified he had fallen into a trap set by very skilful journalists.
Inevitably if one had a private conversation such as this one used language that could be taken out of context. He had always scrupulously observed the rules including those which applied to outside interests. He added that the conversation with the alleged company was all about what he might do when he left the Commons on May 7. He should have left the conversation until then; it would have saved him a fantastic amount of time and trouble.
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