Hain cash row kerfuffle apology

Jan 17 2008 by Tomos Livingstone, Western Mail

PETER HAIN has apologised to Cabinet colleagues for the “kerfuffle” over his failure to declare £103,000 of late donations to his Labour deputy leadership campaign.

But no Cabinet Minister sat alongside the Welsh Secretary yesterday as he took questions from MPs for the first time since the problems came to light.

The Neath MP is under fire after admitting that 17 separate donations – some via a little-known organisation, the Progressive Policies Forum – had not been registered with the Electoral Commission, as is required by law.

He faces a separate probe from the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner for failing to mention the cash in the Register of Members Interests.

Mr Hain, who came fifth in last year’s contest, made his apology during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Downing Street said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s spokesman said, “When Peter Hain intervened elsewhere in Cabinet he apologised for the kerfuffle and said this was an issue that was affecting all parties.”

The spokesman said he was not quoting Mr Hain directly and added, “That was the general sense of what he was saying… clearly this has become an issue and the fact it has become an issue is why he said sorry.”

Mr Brown, who had previously referred in interviews to Mr Hain’s “incompetence” in running his campaign, gave more robust backing in the Commons yesterday, saying at Prime Minister’s Questions, “There are more long-term unemployed getting back to work, and since he became Secretary of Work and Pensions there have been hundreds of contracts signed with local employers to get thousands of people back to work.

“And that is why I have confidence in what he is doing.”

Earlier, at Welsh Questions, shadow Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan said Mr Hain should clarify his links to Welsh businesses who had also supported his deputy leadership campaign.

There needed to be clarity that the Wales Office was both “competent and free of bias”, said Mrs Gillan, who pointed out that Mr Hain had praised the Cuddy Group in a press release four months before the construction firm’s boss gave his campaign £10,000.

Mrs Gillan has written to Mr Hain asking him to “publish the details of your exchanges with the Permanent Secretary with responsibility for Wales on your financial dealings with Welsh companies.

“This will enable business and colleagues to see that you have fully complied with the Ministerial Code and neutralise any suggestions of bias in the way in which you have dealt with corporate endorsements.”

In the Commons, Mr Hain said, “I have absolutely no regrets about the business endorsements that I have given in Wales.”

Despite the backing of Mr Brown, Mr Hain’s fate rests on the outcome of the inquiries by the Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Both may take some weeks to reach their conclusions.

Roger Williams, the Lib-Dems’ spokesman on Welsh affairs, said last night, “It’s up to Gordon Brown entirely what future Peter Hain will have. It will be very difficult if either the Electoral Commission or the Parliamentary Commissioner finds against him.

“He is a lame duck now, a sitting target.”

Labour meanwhile tried to draw the Conservatives into the funding controversy, with Wrexham MP Ian Lucas complaining to the Electoral Commission, alleging that shadow Cabinet members had “systematically” undervalued help with travel from supporters.

David Cameron accepted three helicopter trips during his campaign for the party leadership which were declared on the Register of Members’ Interests but not to the Electoral Commission, according to Mr Lucas.

The Wrexham MP said, “These practices undermine the accuracy and transparency of the reporting system and I therefore request an investigation into them and clarification from the Electoral Commission into their validity.”