Annex 49
Letter to Mr Geoffrey Bindman, Bindman
& Partners, Solicitors, from the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards
Thank you for your letters of 24 October. I
do apologise again for having to ask a series of questions as
I complete my investigations into these matters but I do want
to ensure, in fairness to Mr Vaz, that no inaccuracies are contained
in my report to the Standards and Privileges Committee. And I
am sorry to say that since some witnesses have seriously delayed
their replies to me, it may be that I will need to add further
questions in due course. I look forward to receiving Mr Vaz's
replies to the questions which are currently outstanding at the
end of this week or early next week.
To turn to your question about the allegations
passed on to me from the Sunday Telegraph. I do not regard these
as having been made by the Sunday Telegraph. As I understand it
they were sent to the Sunday Telegraph following the articles
which were published by them and the Sunday Telegraph forwarded
them to me. It was for this reason that I did not refer to them
in my letter of 14 March to Mr Vaz as having been made by the
Sunday Telegraph. I said:
"During the course of investigating the
complaints against you I have been sent further information alleging
that you have not registered payments made to you as a Member
of Parliament."
I set out in my letter what appeared to be the
further allegations.
Mr Vaz responded on 19 March using the heading:
"The Sunday Telegraph We spoke at
length on Saturday and I have mentioned in my previous letters
that I believe that the complaints that have been made form an
orchestrated campaign by two journalists Chris Hastings and Rajiv
Syal. I have clear evidence that they have visited each one of
the complainants and have asked them to make complaints using
the copy of these complaints in order to write defamatory articles
about me. This tactic in my view merits serious consideration
by the Committee. It completely undermines attempts to ensure
an unhindered investigation. Two people named in your letter have
made a complaint to me that these journalists have intimidated
them. I ask you to investigate their conduct."
For the sake of clarity I used the same heading
as Mr Vaz had used in my letter of 4 July to you. I attach a copy
of the information in the form in which it was sent to me by the
Sunday Telegraph. You will note that I dismissed some of the allegations
as too vague to include in my letter to Mr Vaz.
The Sunday Telegraph had also informed me of
allegations made to them concerning payments from Mr Attwall and
Mr Kapasi. I therefore added these to the list to ensure that
Mr Vaz was fully informed of the allegations of which I was aware.
These allegations were published in the next edition of the Sunday
Telegraph of 19 March 2000. When I saw the articles I asked the
Sunday Telegraph for the tapes of the interviews with Mr Kapasi
and Mr Attwall. Mr Kapasi also told me of his interview with the
Sunday Telegraph. I have provided Mr Vaz with copies of the transcripts
of both those interviews and Mr Vaz has commented on them.
26 October 2000
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