David Cameron calls for investigation into cash for influence scandal

[David Guyatt]

Cameron is right to cal for an inquiry - providing the police can do it without fear or favour. And providing that his own Treasurer, Lord Ashcroft's involvement with drug money laundering through his Belize bank is similarly investigated.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopi...laims.html

David Cameron calls for investigation into cash for influence scandal
David Cameron has called for a full investigation into claims that Government ministers may have influenced policy on behalf of companies.

Published: 12:36PM GMT 22 Mar 2010
Former Cabinet ministers Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon were among a group of MPs secretly filmed by journalists posing as lobbists.
Mr Byers, a former transport secretary, this morning referred himself to Parliament's sleaze watchdog John Lyon to investigate his conduct.

Related Articles
'Cash for access' scandal threatens Labour
Ministers face inquiry over 'cash for access' scandal
Four Labour MPs in 'cash for influence' scandal
Cash for influence scandal: Brown dismisses inquiry
Lords fiasco: Lord Truscott's meetings with minister and officials
Lords fiasco: Four more peers reported to police amid 'cash for amendments scandal'
Mr Byers said: ''I am confident that (Mr Lyon) will confirm that I have complied with the MPs' code of conduct and have fully disclosed my outside interests.''
But Mr Cameron, the Conservative leader, called for a wider inquiry: “What we need is not just a parliamentary investigation into Stephen Byers, welcome though that is, what we need is a Government investigation into what these ex-ministers have done.
"Let’s be clear about what’s at stake here, these ministers, Hewitt and Byers were claiming that they changed government policy, they got people appointed, they cost the taxpayer money, they’re making these claims and that goes to the heart of the issue of the integrity of the government.
"Now, we’ve written to Gus O’Donnell, the Permanent Secretary at Number Ten, to get him to investigate, looking at all the departments mentioned, to see what happened. It’s a question o government integrity, it cannot be left as it is.”
The revelations forced Labour to rush forward a promise to enforce a compulsory register of lobbying which it said had been planned for the election manifesto.
All of the MPs filmed denied any wrongdoing and insisted they had breached no rules.
But serving ministers said the behaviour of their colleagues had been "appalling" and "ridiculous", and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called it "very, very sleazy".
Mr Byers was among retiring MPs interviewed by an undercover reporter posing as the representative of a fictitious US lobbying firm.
He told the undercover reporter he had secured secret deals with ministers, could get confidential information from Number 10 and was able to help firms involved in price-fixing get around the law.
The Sunday Times, which carried out the interviews with Channel 4's Dispatches programme, said Mr Byers, who held several key Cabinet portfolios such as trade and transport, wanted £5,000 a day.
The North Tyneside MP retracted his claims the following day – insisting he had "never lobbied ministers on behalf of commercial interests" and had exaggerated his influence.
But there were immediate demands by opposition parties and a trade union for an inquiry into a series of policy changes that Mr Byers, who called himself "a cab for hire", said he secured.
Among Mr Byers' boasts was that he had come to a secret deal with current Transport Secretary Lord Adonis over the termination of a rail franchise contract and that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson had got regulations on food labelling amended after he intervened on behalf of a supermarket giant.
All parties firmly denied the claims but the Tories and Liberal Democrats will today table a series of Parliamentary questions seeking clarification from ministers about the claims and whether there had been any breach of the Ministerial Code.
Ms Hewitt, who served as health secretary, said she "completely rejected" the suggestion that she helped obtain a key seat on a Government advisory group for a client paying her £3,000 a day.
The work under discussion would have been taken up after she stepped down at the imminent general election and was no longer subject to the MPs' code of conduct, she pointed out.
Mr Hoon was reported to have wanted a £3,000-a-day fee for work which would allow him to turn his political knowledge and contacts "into something that frankly makes money".
"At no stage did I offer, nor would I attempt to, sell confidential or privileged information arising from my time in government," he said.
Of 20 politicians contacted by the programme-makers, 15 agreed to meet and 10 were invited in for interviews – nine of those being secretly filmed, of which six feature in the documentary.
An influential Commons committee called more than a year ago for a compulsory detailed register of all lobbying activity overseen by a powerful watchdog.
In response, the industry said it would merge a number of trade bodies to oversee activities and the Government said it would give the voluntary arrangement a chance to prove itself.