Byers denies secret deals (From The Northern Echo)
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Byers denies secret deals
5:59pm Sunday 21st March 2010 in
Labour has promised a crackdown on lobbying by ex-ministers after several of its senior MPs were filmed apparently offering their services for cash.
The party rushed forward a manifesto pledge for tighter regulation and monitoring as it emerged politicians had claimed to be able to influence policy.
Ex-Cabinet minister, and North Tyneside MP, Stephen Byers was among retiring MPs interviewed by a fictitious US lobbying firm as part of a secret filming operation for a television documentary. He told an 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.
Byers retracted his claims the following day - insisting he had "never lobbied ministers on behalf of commercial interests" and had exaggerated his influence.
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.
Another of those filmed was ex-health secretary Patricia Hewitt, who 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.
She stressed that the role she had been discussing would only have been taken up after she stepped down as an MP at the imminent election and insisted there was "nothing unusual or improper in the business appointments that I have taken up since leaving Government".
Comments(6)
BMD
says...
7:10pm Sun 21 Mar 10
.
They Labour MP's will be spying for the Taliban next.
Super steve
says...
7:50pm Sun 21 Mar 10
Few if any people become MPs out of a sense of public duty, most simply come to grab as much as they can, In that sense labour and the Tories are equals.
Nicholas_Till
says...
8:27pm Sun 21 Mar 10
It wouldn't surprise me at all if a raft of Parliamentarians have been doing this, Labour or other. But the way the Sunday Times journos have gone about things strikes me as even nastier than the misdeeds they are claiming to have exposed.
If they had known something was up and had *really* been concerned for the best, they'd have tipped off the Old Bill.
st-george1
says...
7:21am Mon 22 Mar 10
They're just another breed of train robbers in my view and we still have die-hard Labour voters who believe their MPs have done no wrong - more so the voters of the North East, most of whom are probably protecting their huge benefits.
If it were not for the media, we would all be ignorant of the thieves masquerading as politicians and councillors causing huge embarrassment to the UK.
The Grim North
says...
1:08pm Mon 22 Mar 10
Here we go again, just like the expenses scandal they think it will be alright if the change the "system". These people are supposed to be "honourable" and should act in the right way without any regualtion or monitoring. There is more honour amongst thieves. Oh sorry MPs, thieves, whats the difference?
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Not always right says...
6:51pm Sun 21 Mar 10
just shows how gullible/greedy they really are.