Post by bravobravo on Mar 25, 2010 9:34:54 GMT -7
Too bad we don't even bother with the weak standards the Brits have. Scumbags like Babs and Pay will continue to "audition" for their future jobs while allegedly representing the people.
BB
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Labour suspends MPs in lobbying scandal
By Channel 4 News
Updated on 23 March 2010
Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon are suspended by the Labour party over claims that were prepared to use their position to influence government policy in return for cash.
The three former cabinet ministers were suspended following the screening of a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary last night.
They were secretly filmed by an undercover reporter discussing the possibility of working for what they thought was an American lobby company.
Last night party sources said Chief Whip Nick Brown and General Secretary Ray Collins has made the decision to suspend the MPs pending a full investigation.
In a statement Labour said that backbencher Margaret Moran, who also featured in the programme, had been suspended along with the three former ministers.
"The Labour party expects the highest standards of its representatives and believes that they have a duty to be transparent and accountable servants to their constituents at all times," a spokesman said.
Another Labour former minister featured in the programme, Baroness Morgan of Huyton, said that she was referring herself to the House of Lords' Sub-committee on Lords' Interests.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown again rejected opposition calls for government investigation into the claims that policy decisions were swayed by lobbying from former Cabinet members.
Asked how they could be confident that there had been no impropriety, the Prime Minister's spokesman said: "We have very good records."
He said Mr Brown condemned the alleged actions of the three former ministers.
Today Conservative leader David Cameron repeated his demand for an inquiry.
He also pledged that an incoming Conservative government would double the time limit before former ministers could lobby government from a year, to two years.
In the Dispatches documentary Byers, who described himself as a "cab for hire", was seen apparently requesting £5,000-a-day and boasting how he had secured secret deals with ministers over a rail franchise contract and food labelling on behalf of private companies.
His claim to have lobbied successfully for National Express over their east coast mainline rail franchise was today dismissed as "pure fantasy" by Transport Secretary Lord Adonis.
Hewitt and Hoon were filmed suggesting they would charge £3,000 a day for their services. Both have since denied any wrongdoing and insisted they had not breached parliamentary rules.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw 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."
Mr Cameron said that Sir John Butterfill will not get a place in the House of Lords following the revelations on last night's programme, where he was filmed telling the undercover reporter he was "quite likely" to be made a peer.
"I can tell you that's not going to happen," the Conservative leader said.