6. Letter to the Commissioner from
Mr Jeremy Wotherspoon, 12 January 2008
It has been reported in the Media that a Conservative
MP Mr. David Davies, has now made a formal complaint to you concerning
the non declaration of donations received by Mr. Peter Hain in
his unsuccessful attempt to be the Deputy Leader of the Labour
Party.
The Daily
Telegraph has now stated that any member
of the public is entitled to make a complaint about an MP's non
disclosure of donations received and I am therefore exercising
this right to make a formal complaint about these donations, which
Mr. Hain has not disclosed until now.
In all fairness to Mr. Hain, I was prepared to accept
his apology for not declaring a donation of £5,000.00 which
he put down to administrative failings. We are all human at the
end of the day.
Now it has emerged that there is a further £103,156.75
which has not been declared and that Mr. Hain has received tens
of thousands of pounds from six different people via a mysterious
think tank known as "The Progressive Policies Forum".
I say mysterious because it appears that this think
tank apparently employs no staff, has held no meetings nor published
any work since its inception. To cap it all, his former campaign
manager, Mr. Dan Norris, has claimed on TV that he was completely
unaware of its existence!
Who were these donors who now wish to keep their
identities so secret? Why did they give so much of their money
in such a way, and more importantly, what did they hope to gain
if Mr. Hain had been successful?
He entered Parliament in 1991, he has even been a
Cabinet Minister for a number of years, and after seventeen years
as an MP I cannot believe that he would have made such a foolish
and simple mistake without being fully aware of the consequences.
In the words of one newspaper today, "if you'd
tried it out on the Inland Revenue you'd be banged up fast".
This may be somewhat crudely put, but it has hit the nail on the
head as far as this member of the public is concerned.
I would like you to conduct the most vigorous and
searching enquiry into the conduct of Mr. Peter Hain. If he is
guilty of misconduct then he should be exposed not only to Parliament,
but to the country as an example to other MPs who may be tempted
to err on the side of wrongdoing. We will no longer accept meekly
the usual platitudes of a "Sir Humphrey Appleby", we
need to see justice done.
12 January 2008
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