Sleazy does it!

Labour's sleaze: Four suspended over lobbying scandal as we reveal ten former Ministers 'on the take'

By Jason Groves and Dan Newling

Last updated at 3:45 AM on 23rd March 2010

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Three former Labour Cabinet ministers and an MP were suspended from the party last night over the 'cash for lobbying' scandal.

They were ex-ministers Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon and the disgraced backbencher Margaret Moran.

Labour bosses removed the whip from the four after footage of them offering to influence-government policy in return for cash was screened in a television documentary.

The move to suspend them was a damage limitation exercise after the Prime Minister had earlier ruled out an inquiry.

Downing Street had claimed Gordon Brown was satisfied 'no impropriety' had occurred.

But after viewing the footage, senior sources began briefing that the Prime Minister was 'not amused' as Labour sleaze threatened to derail his reelection effort.

Lord Mandelson last night described the behaviour of Blairite Mr Byers as 'ghastly' and 'grubby'.

But the Daily Mail can reveal that the extent of the lobbying scandal goes far wider than had been realised.

Ten senior Labour MPs - including Miss Hewitt - are making more than £750,000 a year by cashing in on their ministerial contacts. The ex-ministers are now paid by firms linked to their former roles in Government.

Between them they were paid £769,000 in a year by their private sector employers, on top of their £65,000-a-year salaries as MPs.

In total, the former ministers are thought to have banked £1.4million from private companies since leaving their various roles in Government.

Two years ago a cross-party committee of MPs said it was 'unacceptable' for former ministers in the Commons to cash in on their contacts and called for the practice to be banned.

But the call was rejected by Gordon Brown, after the Government denied there was evidence of a problem.

The Prime Minister yesterday astonished MPs by rejecting Tory calls for an inquiry into claims by former Cabinet minister Mr Byers that he had successfully lobbied ministers to change policy on behalf of private firms.

Tory Party chairman Eric Pickles described the decision as 'outrageous', adding: 'This looks increasingly like a cover-up at the heart of Government.'

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Mr Byers told an undercover reporter for Channel 4's Dispatches he was 'like a cab for hire'.

He told the journalist, who was posing as an executive at a lobbying firm, that he would expect a fee of up to £5,000 a day.

Miss Hewitt and Mr Hoon were also filmed offering firms access to Government in return for cash, as was Tony Blair's former gatekeeper Baroness Morgan, and Miss Moran, whose £22,500 claims to treat dry rot put her at the centre of the expenses scandal.

THE RULES

MPs are technically barred from acting as paid advocates for private companies at Westminster.

They cannot table questions or lobby ministers or civil servants on behalf of outside interest groups or companies. MPs are not, however, barred from taking on outside work.

All paid employment has to be recorded in the Register of Members' Interests and MPs are meant to declare any potential conflicts of interest relating to subjects they raise in Parliament.

But enforcement of the rules is notoriously lax.

In 2008, the Commons public administration committee said: 'We are strongly concerned that, with the rules as loosely and variously interpreted as they currently are, former ministers in particular appear to be able to use with impunity the contacts they built up as public servants to further a private interest.

'We think that is unacceptable, particularly where they continue to be paid from the public purse as sitting MPs.'

But the cross-party committee's call was rejected by ministers. The MPs also called for reform of the advisory committee on business appointments, which vets the jobs taken by former ministers.

The body, widely seen as toothless, has approved the jobs of 46 former ministers since the last election and has not rejected any.

Its recommendations are merely 'advisory' and cover only the first two years after a minister has left office.

Mr Byers claimed to have saved the transport firm National Express millions of pounds by lobbying Transport Secretary Lord Adonis.

The Peer yesterday described the claims as ' fantasy'. He admitted to peers he had spoken to Mr Byers about National Express's concerns.

But he said there was 'no truth' in the claim this had influenced his handling of the firm's decision to pull out of the franchise to operate the East Coast mainline last year.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson also denied he had been successfully lobbied by Mr Byers to block costly food labelling rules.

'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 said.

'It's extremely disappointing and altogether rather grubby'.

In the Commons yesterday MPs called for a crackdown on lobbying.

Labour's Dennis Skinner called for a ban on MPs' outside earnings, adding: 'You can't starve on £60,000 a year.'

The Tories called for the current two-year limit on the vetting of jobs by former ministers and senior civil servants to be extended.

They said MPs who ignore the advice should face criminal prosecution.

Research by the Mail shows at least ten former ministers are employed by firms with interests in their former areas of Government.

The figures, from the Commons' Register of Members' Financial Interests, show that between them they earned £1,394,169 from jobs closely related to the ministerial positions they left.

Leading the ten is Miss Hewitt. As non-executive director at BT - where she earns £60,000 a year - she is highly likely to draw on her experience as one of the architects of the communications watchdog Ofcom.

Private equity firm Cinven specialises in buying healthcare companies and Boots is one of the world's leading pharmacy chains.

Both would be interested in accessing the contacts and knowledge of a former health secretary.

It also emerged yesterday that Miss Hewitt boasted that she had a five-point plan to help companies lobby ministers and civil servants.

She said the most basic route to ministers was for firms to offer them hospitality. A second way was to fund a think-tank to put on a seminar at which a company representative could sit next to a minister.

A party conference event was a 'classic' route to access ministers, while her fourth suggestion was to simply offer them a direct invitation.

If this failed, Miss Hewitt suggested the 'subtle route in' of a firm identifying a link with the minister's constituency. She denies any wrongdoing.

Commons rules allow former ministers to take up jobs with firms that have direct interests in their governmental role. But they are not allowed to table questions or lobby ministers for their paymasters.

There is no evidence any of the ten ministers have broken the rules.

MPs broke rules over foreign junkets 400 times

More than 20 MPs have broken Commons rules by 'lobbying' on behalf of countries where they enjoyed expenses-paid trips.

The politicians enjoyed junkets in some of the world's most desirable holiday destinations including the Maldives, the Cayman Islands and Sri Lanka.

Their 'jollies' were funded by foreign governments.

But an investigation by the BBC found that in many cases the MPs failed to declare fully that fact before asking parliamentary questions and taking part in Commons debates.

In total MPs were caught breaching the regulations more than 400 times.

Labour MP Andrew Dismore, a member of the Commons standards and privileges committee which polices MPs' conduct, is alleged to have breached the rules more than 90 times in relation to annual trips to Cyprus.

He denies any wrongdoing and told the BBC he has declared his interest in Cyprus on many other occasions.

Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox admitted breaching rules twice in asking parliamentary questions after visiting Sri Lanka.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker has apparently broken regulations 37 times, leading debates and tabling questions about Tibet, after twice travelling to India courtesy of the Tibet Society and the Tibet government-in-exile.

Mr Baker and Dr Fox both blamed the apparent breach of the rules on an 'oversight'.

Tory vice-chairman Richard Spring admitted failing to register a paid trip to Mauritius before asking four questions about Britain's relations with the island. He said he was caught out by a change in the rules.

More than a dozen MPs had asked questions about Gibraltar after enjoying paid trips there.

Under Commons rules, MPs are not allowed to press for UK government assistance to a place from which they have recently received hospitality.

They must register the trip and then declare relevant trips when tabling questions, motions or debates.

The chairman of the Commons public administration committee, Tony Wright, said the alleged failures were 'unacceptable'.

Mr Wright added: 'If rules are being broken they need to be adhered to and it's as simple as that. If that means taking some action we should do that.'