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Letter from Mr Ian Greer to the Parliamentary
Commissioner for Standards
As I am sure you are well aware, my company
took legal action against The Guardian in 1994, following
allegations of "cash for questions". Some two weeks
ago, three or four days before the trial was due to commence,
my attention was drawn by my accountant to the fact that Sir Michael
Grylls, MP, may have received more referral payments from my
company than I was aware of when I gave evidence to the Select
Committee on Members' Interests in 1990. At that time, I stated
that Member "A" (Sir Michael Grylls, MP) had received
three commission payments, Member "B" (Neil Hamilton,
MP) two and Member "C" (Michael Brown, MP) one. It
has now become clear that Sir Michael may have received up to
six payments for referral of business. The reason for the lack
of clarity at the time I gave evidence - and indeed even today
- is that, apart from the new business referral payments made
by my company to Sir Michael, he was an adviser to the Unitary
Tax Campaign (for which my company acted as secretariat) and
received a regular fee from the Campaign. On a number of occasions,
this fee was paid by IGA and recovered from the UTC. In addition,
there were some instances where he was paid by IGA to carry out
additional work on behalf of the UTC.
It is against this confusing background that
I gave evidence in all good faith to the Select Committee. You
will, of course, be aware that Sir Michael made a full declaration
covering both the UTC and IGA in the Register of Members' Interests.
Sir Michael and I have been personal friends
for 37 years and worked together on a number of occasions over
that period. Our friendship was well known by the vast majority
of his Parliamentary colleagues.
I thought it important to bring this matter
to your attention.
Ian Greer
14 October 1996
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