Clegg vows to push ahead with anti-sleaze reforms

Clegg also said anti-sleaze reforms will not be abandoned, after the two lords were suspended and another quit his party’s whip over claims they breached parliamentary rules.

The deputy prime minister seized on what he called fresh examples of the “murkier side of British politics” to push the case for a statutory register of lobbyists and a mechanism to sack rule-breaking MPs.

Despite David Cameron warning three years ago that lobbying was the “next big scandal” waiting to hit Westminster, coalition agreement pledges to make the twin reforms have not yet been met.

Critics have accused the prime minister of kicking the register issue into the long grass under the influence of the Conservatives’ electoral strategy adviser, lobbyist Lynton Crosby.

No agreement

Last week Mr Clegg complained that it was “not something that we could get agreement on across the coalition at the moment”.

But in an article for the Daily Telegraph he insisted that he and Mr Cameron were “both determined that the register should go ahead”.

Mr Clegg wrote: “I know that the absence of the register from last month’s Queen’s speech raised some concerns. So let me be clear: it will happen. Having consulted on the proposal, the detail is being looked at thoroughly in government.”

Labour ex-cabinet minister Lord Cunningham, party colleague Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate, and Ulster Unionist Lord Laird face inquiries into allegations they offered to exercise influence in return for cash.

The three, who all deny any wrongdoing and have referred themselves to the standards watchdog, were caught in an undercover sting by Sunday Times reporters posing as lobbyists working for a fake energy firm.

New low

In what one shadow cabinet minister called “a new low for British politics” that would “sicken” voters, the release of video footage of the exchanges further fuelled a Westminster controversy ignited by similar accusations against MP Patrick Mercer on Friday.

Announcing the suspension of Lords Cunningham and Mackenzie pending the results of a probe, a Labour spokesman said it expected “the highest standards of its representatives and believes that they have a duty to be transparent and accountable at all times”.

Lord Laird resigned the Ulster Unionist whip following a conversation with party leader Mike Nesbitt, who said it expected members to respect the rules “in spirit as well as in letter”.

The House of Lords code of conduct says peers must not act as paid advocates and “must not seek to profit from membership of the house by accepting or agreeing to accept payment for providing parliamentary advice or services”.

The Northern Irish peer is also alleged to have discussed a £2,000 a month deal with a separate set of undercover reporters, this time from the BBC’s Panorama and the Telegraph posing as lobbyists seeking the end of Fiji’s suspension from the Commonwealth.

Sting

That is the same sting which led to Mr Mercer dramatically quitting the Tory whip, referring himself to the Commons sleaze watchdog and announcing he would quit the Commons in 2015.

It is claimed the Newark MP was paid £4,000 by the bogus lobbying firm and tabled parliamentary questions and a motion, offered a security pass and set up an all-party parliamentary group on Fiji.

Mr Mercer has referred his case to the parliamentary commissioner for standards and is taking legal advice.

As calls mounted for a clampdown, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said he would be “astonished” if the register and recall powers were not in place by 2015.

Tory backbenchers said however they feared a “stitch up” putting recall powers in the hands of Westminster elites not ordinary constituents.

Mr Clegg said the latest revelations were an “unsettling but not surprising” symptom of a political system “long crying out for head-to-toe reform”.

“It’s the political equivalent of Groundhog Day: MPs accused of abusing their position; businesses of getting too close,” he wrote.

A register would not be a “magical protection against an individual politician determined to behave unethically or inappropriately” and the overwhelming majority of lobbying was legitimate and served the public interest, Mr Clegg said.

“But clearly there are instances where access is abused – further undermining the already weak public trust in our institutions – and greater transparency is a key part of the antidote.”

Proper place

Cabinet Minister Francis Maude has said there is a “proper place” for lobbying in government, but admitted there is a “serious view” that money should not be be exchanged.

He told Daybreak: “There’s a perfectly proper role for lobbying, which is actually explaining a need for a change in the law or for something particular to be done and people with real expertise who will want to put that case in front of law makers and there’s nothing at all in proper about that, what’s improper is if the cause is concealed.

“There is now a really serious view that in parliament, actually, you should not take money to act as an advocate for a cause, even if its declared in parliament, because you’re there as a law maker in your own right.

“The statutory register of lobbyists would have made no difference in this case at all, because what is alleged to have happened would have been against the parliamentary rules in any event.”