Wendy Alexander: although the Electoral Commission has decided not to report her to the Procurator Fiscal for accepting an illegal overseas donation to her Scottish Labour leadership campaign, the Scottish Parliament’s Standards Commissioner has reported her.
We await news of what the Procurator Fiscal decides. Meanwhile, she’s in more hot water for putting down a motion in the Scottish Parliament praising a local firm, but failing to declare the financial support she has received from it although the Parliament’s rules require such declarations to be made alongside motions.
Gordon Brown: the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is now investigating his apparent breach of the rules on subletting property paid for out of MPs’ expenses. He has also changed his arrangements so that such subletting no longer takes place.
Michael Martin: the House of Commons Speaker is facing questions over his use of Airmiles garnered from official business to pay for flights for his family. Norman Baker said, “A benefit accrued because of spending by the taxpayer should be returned to the taxpayer”.
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8 Comments
A sleaze round-up? What an excellent idea.
Presumably to include the following case:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6319793.stm
No update on Michael Brown?
You don’t expect the LibDems to admit to their own sleaze failings do you?
Eh? You mean the man who isn’t a politician, who sought no preferement from his donation to the LDs and who has been convicted of a passport offence?
Oh, yes, of course – that’s *exactly like* elected politicians potentially abusing the donation and expenses system. Silly me.
No really, why aren’t the LibDems admitting to this rather obvious bit of sleaze?
Perhaps because, in the words of the electoral commission,
“it was reasonable for the Liberal Democrats – based on the information available to them at the time – to regard the donations they received from 5th Avenue Partners Ltd in 2005, totaling just over £2.4m, as permissible. It remains the Commissions view that the Liberal Democrats acted in good faith at that time . . .”
“No, really” read what Grammar Police said again.