|
Letter from Mr Royston Webb to the Parliamentary
Commissioner for Standards
Thank you for your letters of 17 and 20 February.
* * *
I have revised the draft transcript of our meeting
and that should reach you by Wednesday of this week.
As to my comments on the transcript of my telephone
conversation with Ian Greer, these are as follows:
1. I see no "apparent inconsistency",
as Neil Hamilton's solicitors, Crockers, put it, between paragraph
11 of my statement and the top of page 9 of the Greer transcript.
There might be inconsistency if the transcript quoted me as saying
that I had had nothing to do with Neil Hamilton, but that
is not the case. I thus fail to understand Crockers' point.
2. At the middle of page 4 of the transcript,
my concern over any Guardian allegation was that it would
contend that I had played an active role in paying Neil Hamilton.
If such an involvement on my part had been sought, it would have
been declined as being professionally quite inappropriate.
3. In certain places the tape must be indistinct
or there are transcription errors since some passages do not
make very much sense. It should also be borne in mind that I had
had no time to reflect upon this matter before Ian telephoned
me in Dubai. I had been immersed for some time in the litigation
there and had had no cause to ponder the detail of my past dealing
with any MPs.
4. You should be aware that Ian also telephoned
me a few days later when I had returned to my London office.
It may be significant that he has not produced a recording of
that conversation. I cannot recall the detail of that discussion
but it was certainly on the same topic. If there is no such tape,
then Ian's reason for not preserving a record would of itself
be interesting. I was not, of course, told that either conversation
was being taped.
Royston Webb
24 February 1997
| 
