Ex-ministers suspended from Labour
party over lobbying allegations
Jack Straw says the MPs' behaviour has brought the Labour party
and parliament into disrepute
Patrick Wintour, Allegra Stratton and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 23 March 2010 09.08 GMT
Labour ex-ministers Geoff Hoon and Stephen Byers declare an interest in taking money
from a fictitious lobbying firm to influence legislation Link to this video
Three former cabinet ministers, Geoff Hoon, Stephen Byers and Patricia Hewitt, were
suspended from the Parliamentary Labour party last night in an unprecedented
crackdown on sleaze.
The move was implemented by the party's chief whip, Nick Brown, and fuelled by
backbench revulsion at claims that the trio had been using their ministerial experience
to seek profitable lobbying consultancies.
The decision was taken by No 10 after party officials watched a Channel 4 programme
that secretly recorded the former ministers expressing a desire to work for a consultancy
firm at a fee of up to £5,000 a day. Byers, the former transport secretary, described
himself as a "cab for hire".
Later, a Labour spokesman said that Margaret Moran, the MP for Luton South, had also
been suspended after featuring in the Dispatches programme.
It is extremely rare for three senior figures to be suspended, especially as it is not clear
that any of the former ministers have broken parliamentary rules on lobbying, but in the
current pre-election climate there is anger that they have damaged Labour's election
chances by allegedly trading on their political influence for profit.
Today, Jack Straw, the justice secretary, said the MPs had been suspended under a
Labour standing order against bringing the party into disrepute.
"It's my view certainly, having seen what I have seen, that their behaviour, prima facie,
does indeed bring the parliamentary Labour party, as well as parliament, into disrepute,
because it appears that former cabinet ministers are more interested in making money
than they are in properly representing their constituents," he told BBC Radio 4's Today
programme.
"That's why there is such anger in the parliamentary Labour party, as well as I may say
incredulity, about their stupidity in allowing themselves to be suckered in a sting like
this."
Straw said an investigation into any potential impropriety by ministers or officials – as
called for by the Tories – had been carried out.
"There is not a shred of evidence – not a single scintilla of evidence – of any impropriety
whatsoever; that's why it's been swift," he said.
He also insisted the MPs' treatment had nothing to do with their reputations for being
staunch Blairites. Hoon and Hewitt led a failed coup against Gordon Brown earlier this
year.
Straw said: "None of the action is anything to do with 'they are Blairites'. I may tell you,
I was around the House of Commons last night. The anger, as well as the incredulity,
from former close allies of Tony Blair about the alleged behaviour of these three former
colleagues is as strong if not stronger than that of people who were in the past on a
different wing of the party.
"I was talking last night to a close friend of mine, who was and is extremely close to Mr
Blair, and I can tell you their anger is incendiary."
Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, said: "What is so ghastly about this is that
somebody like Stephen Byers feels it necessary to make completely untrue, unfounded
boasts to these people in order to get himself future business," he told BBC2's
Newsnight last night.
"It is extremely disappointing and it is very sad and rather grubby."
The dramatic disciplinary action to suspend the MPs was taken by the chief whip and
the party's general secretary, Ray Collins.
The measures were partly brought forward by Labour whips after a scheduled weekly
meeting of Labour MPs revealed the huge depth of feeling against the former ministers'
behaviour, and the belief that they will have damaged Labour's chances of clawing itself
back into the election race. In the Commons yesterday all the former ministers were
rounded on by a succession of Labour MPs claiming the moment marked the death knell
of New Labour.
All three are standing down at the next election and were looking for work after the
election, but No 10 owes no loyalty to them since they have, at various times, all called
for Gordon Brown to stand down as prime minister.
The leader of the Commons, Harriet Harman, said ministers would respond by making
lobbying companies subject to a statutory code. She also suggested that the government
would tighten the rules on former ministers seeking jobs in the private sector.
The three former ministers were being suspended pending an inquiry by the
parliamentary standards commissioner into whether they had broken parliamentary
rules on paid advocacy. Byers referred himself yesterday to standards commissioner
insisting he had broken no parliamentary rule.
The trio claim they have not been allowed access to the full transcripts of the secretly
recorded conversations they separately held with the journalists posing as a new US
lobbying company.
They privately acknowledge they were foolish in taking the bait, but argue they have
broken no rules since they were offered no jobs, and therefore have no commercial
interests to declare in the MPs' register.
Similarly there was no requirement for them to seek the permission of the advisory
committee on ministerial appointments, the body responsible for sanctioning former
ministers and civil servants taking jobs in the private sector.
But Labour officials believe the impression conveyed that former ministers were trying
to profit from their knowledge as former public servants will anger voters already
alienated by the expenses scandal.
Earlier both Mandelson and Lord Adonis, the transport secretary, denied the
suggestions made by Byers in the Channel 4 programme that he had persuaded them to
change key ministerial decisions. Byers claimed he had persuaded Adonis to go easy on
National Express after it prematurely forfeited its East Coast mainline franchise. Adonis
said he had discussed the issue with Byers, but said the claim he had gone easy on
National Express was fantasy.
He told peers: "I have no idea why Stephen Byers said what he did to this undercover
reporter, but I notice he has withdrawn his claims."
Byers has said he made up his claims.
In a letter to shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, Sir Gus O'Donnell, the
cabinet secretary, said that he and the prime minister had taken steps to ensure the
claims that serving ministers and officials had been lobbied were "immediately
investigated".
"Permanent secretaries in the relevant departments have looked into these issues as a
matter of urgency, as they would with any such serious allegations," he said.
"The permanent secretaries have assured themselves and advised the prime minister
and me that there was no impropriety by current ministers or officials."
Following the reports, Hoon said he had made clear during an "informal chat" with what
he assumed was "a reputable American company" that he would not lobby government
or "attempt to sell confidential or privileged information arising from my time in
government". He said he had not broken any rules.
Hewitt, the former health secretary, said she "completely rejected" the suggestion she
helped obtain a key seat on a government advisory group for a client paying her £3,000
a day. She said the role she had been discussing would only have been taken up after she
stepped down as an MP.
The Tory MP John Butterfill, who was also filmed by the Dispatches team, was said by
Conservative party sources to have referred himself to the standards commissioner last
night. Mandelson said "What is so ghastly about this is that he [Byers] feels it is
necessary to make these claims. It is extremely disappointing very sad and rather
grubby.