MPs yesterday wound up their cash-for-questions inquiry into Neil Hamilton, the disgraced former Tory MP, after opting not to pursue evidence which the former Trade Minister claimed may have helped to clear his name, writes Denis Campbell.
The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee, Parliament's sleaze watchdog, decided it had heard enough evidence about the long-running Hamilton saga. It decided not to grant the ex-MP's demand to call his main accuser, Mohammed Al Fayed, and the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Sir Gordon Downey, and cross-examine them under oath.
The committee, which will publish its verdict after meeting next week, is now almost certain not to overturn the finding of Sir Gordon's report that there was ''compelling'' evidence that Hamilton took cash payments from Mr Al Fayed in return for asking questions in Parliament.
As the committee met, the deposed Tatton MP produced cassette tapes which he claimed proved his innocence. Mr Hamilton said the secretly-recorded conversations between Mr Al Fayed and his arch-rival Mr ''Tiny'' Rowland ''give a very illuminating background to the cash-for-questions saga, the reasons why it started and in particular, the reasons why he [Al Fayed] singled me out''.
The ex-MP said he was disappointed the Standards Committee was not prepared to question Al Fayed and his employees.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article