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Letter from Sir Michael Grylls MP to The
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
Thank you for your letter of 5 February.
I enclose a list of all the payments I have
received over the last 14 years from Ian Greer. They were all
paid by cheque and included VAT for which I was responsible.
I was intending to bring my books to show you
on 19 February and that is why I did not include these details
in my letter.
After the collapse of Ian Greer's libel action
against The Guardian, I have been asking myself what I,
personally, might have done differently which could possibly
have averted this outcome.
It might have been wiser, with hindsight, to
have taken a closer interest in how Ian Greer was recording my
invoices. I did not, and perhaps should have, kept a note in
my books (which was kept for VAT and Income tax purposes) which
particular invoices related to the extra time I spent on the Unitary
Tax Campaign and which related to referral payments. However,
as I was clear in my mind that I had declared my connection with
Ian Greer in the list of Members' Interests, which specifically
excluded the need to declare amounts (see attached) this did not
seem relevant at the time - and I could not have foreseen that
I would need to remember these details 14 years later. With hindsight,
I should have gone through IGA's books with Ian Greer at the time
of the June 1990 enquiry and not relied on the information his
Accountant gave me which proved unreliable for both of us. I
have always felt it was typically generous of Ian Greer to take
full personal responsibility for this error in his and my evidence
to the Select Committee in June 1990 and I regret this lack of
communication between us.
Even though we wrote to you with the correction
at the earliest possible opportunity in October 1996, it was
too late for his Libel action against The Guardian to continue.
I re-affirm that Ian Greer's payments to me
over the last 14 years were for additional time and work done
for the Unitary Tax Campaign, together with Commission on the
referrals who retained IGA to help them. The payments began in
1983 (years before Ian Greer started helping Mohamed Al-Fayed)
and none were related to Harrods. It is perhaps relevant
to mention here that as the Rules on Members Interests have evolved,
and the guidelines and advice given to us have become more specific,
it has become easier for Members to know how and where to declare
their Interests to avoid confusion.
You may be wondering whether I would still have
referred all the people I did to Ian Greer if I had not received
commission. The answer is "Yes, I would." I believe
he had the best team in the political PR business and I respect
Ian Greer's personal integrity completely.
I have never heard anything but good reports
from the people he and his team at IGA have helped, and they
all made many friends. For my part, I am very sorry that I may
have inadvertently contributed additional heartbreak and embarrassment
to the individuals concerned in the Harrods "controversy"
- and I regret that I should be part of an enquiry which will
give publicity to those people seeking to damage the reputation
of Parliament on the eve of a General Election.
10 February 1997
Invoices rendered to IGA, 1983-93
|
| Date | Invoiced to | Amount
£ |
|
| June 1983 | Ian Greer | 2,300.00 |
|
January 1984 | Ian Greer | 6,900.00 |
| January 1985 | Ian
Greer/UTC | 10,580.00 |
| October 1985 | Ian Greer/UTC | 7,834.38 |
|
April 1986 | Ian Greer/UTC | 5,965.63 |
| July 1986 | Ian
Greer/UTC | 8,050.00 |
| November 1986 | Ian Greer/UTC | 5,750.00 |
|
June 1987 | UTC | 5,750.00 |
| September 1987 | UTC/IGA | 5,750.00 |
|
December 1988 | Ian Greer | 8,050.00 |
| June 1989 | UTC | 5,750.00 |
|
December 1989 | Ian Greer | 7,446.00 |
| August 1990 | Ian
Greer | 5,750.00 |
| December 1990 | Ian Greer | 5,750.00 |
|
July 1991 | Ian Greer | 5,875.00 |
| June 1992 | Ian Greer | 5,875.00 |
|
December 1992 | Ian Greer | 5,875.00 |
| May 1993 | Ian
Greer | 5,875.00 |
|
| Note: The above are the
dates on the invoices; the cheques in payment were often received
a month or so later. |
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