Annex 126
Letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards from Councillor Piara Singh Clair
I have received your letter of the 18 May in
reply to my two letters of 28 April 2000 and 11 May 2000. The
answers to your questions are:
I am pleased that you say that I have had no
wrongdoings for the following reasons. On Thursday 11 May the
Leicester City Council held our annual general meeting. The elections
were for leader of the council, Deputy Leader, Chair, Secretary
and Chief Whip. Before the meeting I was approached by Cllr M
Kamal and he asked me to vote for him and for Sir Peter Soulsby
as Leader. I agreed to do so.
At the meeting Sir Peter (who has been a friend
of mine for many years) withdrew from the Leadership and Kamal
withdrew from Deputy Leadership. No reasons was given really.
Kamal approached me and gave me an envelope. He told me not to
open it there in front of everyone. He said to me that he was
not against me but against "him" and he raised his hand
and pointed out of the window. I had no idea what he meant.
When I got home I opened the letter. I was shocked.
It was a letter addressed to you and in one of his paragraphs
it referred to me telling him that I had helped Mr Vaz's election
campaign by making the Sikh business community donate £10,000.
This is complete rubbish. First I have not raised this money for
the MP or anyone else and second I have never spoken to Kamal
about the election campaign or mentioned any money. This is really
insulting to me. I am a Sikh and I have respect in the community.
You say I have done nothing wrong but, first to tell a lie is
wrong and secondly if I had raised this money not to have given
it to the election, would be very wrong. Since last week many
other councillors have approached me and asked me if this is true.
My reputation is being badly hurt by this. They all think that
I have this money. This is not true, Kamal is not telling the
truth.
I am insulted that my name has been dragged
into this.
22 May 2000
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