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Letter from the Editor of The Guardian
to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
Thank you for your latest letter and I am very
glad that Nigel Pleming and Geraldine Proudler are meeting to
go through all the documents that might be relevant to your enquiry.
As far as "other" members are concerned,
I never had any intention of formally referring them to you in
the sense of alleging that these were individual acts of misconduct,
except in the case of Mr Bowden, since the sum he received appears
to have exceeded the total amount of his election costs. In most
cases the sums involved appear to have been a legitimate proportion
of election expenses.
There may be broader issues involved here concerning
the propriety of lobbyists making contributions to election expenses,
but I think the scope of The Guardian's complaints is already
broad enough.
I enclose, for your information, a copy of our
coverage of the money paid to the MPs we were able to find out
about. Doubtless, you will find reference to these payments in
Mr Greer's papers.
Do let me know if I can be of any further help
on this or on any other matters.
Alan Rusbridger
10 January 1997
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