Britain will introduce a statutory register of political lobbyists, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said after three members of the upper house of parliament were suspended from their parties at the weekend in a “cash for access” scandal.
The three House of Lords peers were covertly filmed in a media sting offering to ask parliamentary questions, lobby ministers and host events in prestigious parliament premises in exchange for payment by what they were told were lobbyists acting for companies.
All three, two from the main opposition Labour Party — Brian Mackenzie and Jack Cunningham — and John Laird from the Ulster Unionist Party, denied breaking the chamber’s rules, but their parties took swift action against them.
Another undercover media investigation had already forced a member of the lower house of parliament, Patrick Mercer, to resign from the ruling Conservative Party and seek legal advice.
The government of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives and its junior coalition partner the Liberal Democrats had pledged in 2010 to introduce the register, which would regulate lobbyists and give constituents the power to force lawmakers to resign in cases of serious misconduct.
However, it was not mentioned by Queen Elizabeth in an annual speech last month setting out the government’s legislative plans.
Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the government would press ahead with the reform.
“It will happen. Having consulted on the proposal, the detail is being looked at thoroughly in government,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper yesterday.
Journalists from the Sunday Times approached Laird, Mackenzie and Cunningham pretending to be working for a solar energy company. The reporters used a hidden camera to film the men apparently offering to help the fake company in return for money.
The BBC’s Panorama program, in partnership with the Daily Telegraph, conducted another undercover investigation in which Laird was also filmed offering to ask parliamentary questions in return for payment.
He is alleged to have told reporters posing as representatives promoting businesses in Fiji that he would be prepared to accept a retainer of ￡2,000 (US$3,040) a month.
“I’ll deny having said this, but it’s a bribe,” he was recorded as saying.
The code of conduct for the House of Lords stipulates that members “must not seek to profit from membership of the House by accepting or agreeing to accept payment for providing parliamentary advice or services.”
Laird later told the BBC he had been the victim of a journalistic “scam.”
Cunningham was recorded saying he would be prepared to accept ￡12,000 a month for writing to Cameron to push the fake company’s agenda and to ask parliamentary questions.
Mackenzie was filmed offering to arrange parties within parliament grounds for paying clients.
Additional reporting by AFP
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