Conduct of Mr George Galloway
1. In April 2003, the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards received complaints alleging that Mr George Galloway,
Member for Glasgow Kelvin, had received some £375,000 from
the former Iraqi regime, under the guise of the United Nations'
Oil for Food Programme, which he had not recorded in the Register
of Members' Interests. The underlying allegations became the subject
of a libel action between Mr Galloway and the Telegraph Group
Limited, publishers of the Daily Telegraph.
2. In December 2003, in our first Report of Session
2003-04,[1] we agreed with
the Commissioner that, for the reasons he set out in a memorandum
published with that report, it would not be appropriate either
to dispose of the complaints at that stage, or for him to pursue
further his inquiries of Mr Galloway that referred to matters
in dispute in the legal action. We accepted that this would mean
"some delay" in reaching conclusions on the complaints,
and undertook both to keep the matter under constant review and
to report further to the House as necessary.
3. Judgement in the libel action was given in Mr
Galloway's favour on 2 December 2004 and, following this, the
Commissioner resumed his inquiries of Mr Galloway. We have now
considered a further memorandum from the Commissioner on progress
since December 2003, in which he reports that the Telegraph Group
Limited has started the legal processes involved in seeking leave
to appeal against the judgement.
4. We agree with the Commissioner that it would not
be appropriate for him to pursue the complaints further while
the legal proceedings between Mr Galloway and the Telegraph Group
Limited continue. We regret that this will inevitably mean further
delay in completing the Commissioner's investigation of these
serious complaints. As it must be in both the public interest,
and the interest of all concerned, for the Commissioner to be
able to conclude his inquiries as soon as possible into matters
which have now been under investigation by him for almost two
years, we hope that every effort will be made by all concerned
to avoid any unnecessary delay in concluding the remaining legal
proceedings.
1 HC 73 (2003-04). Back
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