Malcolm Rifkind clings to chairmanship of Commons intelligence committee
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Version 0 of 1. Sir Malcolm Rifkind was clinging on to the chairmanship of parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) on Monday, despite being suspended from the party whip and ordered to face an internal disciplinary inquiry that could see him banned from standing again to be a Conservative MP. David Cameron said the cash-for-access allegations made against Rifkind were very serious, but added it was a matter for the ISC to decide if he could continue as its chair – at a time when the committee is preparing a report into allegations that Britain’s spy agencies breached citizens’ privacy and routinely broke the law. Rifkind, along with the former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw, had been caught in a Channel 4/Daily Telegraph sting in which the men, two of the most senior backbenchers in the Commons, appeared to offer a fictitious Chinese company access to ministers and diplomats in return for cash. Straw suspended himself from Parliamentary Labour party on Sunday, insisting he had broken no rules and would only have helped the Chinese company if he had left the Commons and become a peer. The Daily Telegraph also reported that Straw is to take a job on the board of a furniture firm in his constituency which won a £75m government contract after he lobbied a minister on its behalf in 2011. Straw, who denies any wrongdoing, insists he helped the firm, Senator International, only because it employed a large number of people from his constituency. Rifkind’s immediate status as ISC chair was protected by Labour’s strategic decision to focus on Ed Miliband’s call for Cameron to join him in imposing a ban on MPs holding any consultancies and outside directorships. Miliband, the Labour leader, said he also wanted to see MPs banned from garnering more than 15% of an MP’s salary from outside earnings. Cameron chose to reject Miliband’s appeal, saying parliament benefited from MPs having outside experience. Many more Tory MPs than Labour MPs have outside earnings. Meanwhile, Rifkind said he was only being offered a seat on an advisory board of the supposed company, adding: “I doubt if there’s a former chancellor, home secretary or even prime minister that hasn’t served on one of them over the years. “It is entirely lawful as long as it is put in the register of members’ interests. “I am very angry that people make allegations that I know to be unfounded. Of course I am not sorry – I am absolutely livid.” Both Rifkind and Straw have referred themselves to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, but no inquiry will be complete before the election. That leaves Rifkind’s political future largely dependent on the much quicker internal party inquiry. Labour members of the ISC are likely to remain loyal to Rifkind, but the senior Labour backbencher Tom Watson said: “If the chair of the intelligence committee no longer has the confidence of the prime minister, then he should not continue as chairman. “I find it extraordinary that the chair of the ISC could even contemplate a relationship with a Chinese company. There are very few Chinese firms operating in the UK that are not linked to the mother ship of the Chinese government.” Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, said it was “very questionable” whether Rifkind could hang on as committee chair. Cameron indicated that he was powerless to act over Rifkind’s role as chair of the ISC. He said: “The chairman is not appointed by me. The chairman is appointed by the members and I cannot interfere with that. It is a matter for the committee. It is a matter for the House of Commons.” The prime minister rejected Miliband’s call for Tories to follow Labour and impose a ban on MPs holding outside directorships and consultancies in the wake of the new allegations. Cameron said: “On the issue of outside jobs, outside interests, we do have very clear rules. They need to be properly enforced. I don’t favour a complete ban on all outside jobs or interests. “Parliament is enriched by the fact that we have [MPs doing outside work], whether it is a GP doing some time in a practice. There is a minister who is an obstetrician – I think he gains useful information from that. “What I see from the Labour proposal is not outlawing outside business interests but putting in a new set of rules which would, for instance, allow someone to work as a trade union official but wouldn’t allow someone to run a family shop or a family publishing business or such like.” In a bid to put Labour on the front foot, Miliband wrote to Cameron saying: “The British people need to know that when they vote they are electing someone who will represent them directly, and not be swayed by what they may owe to the interests of others.” Both Straw and Rifkind defended their extra-parliamentary activities and earnings. Rifkind claimed it was quite unrealistic to expect professional people to live on an MP’s salary, saying: “I do want to have the standard of living that my professional background would normally entitle me to have.” He accepted his salary “sounded a lot to a lot of people earning less than that but the vast majority of people from a business or professional background earn far, far more”. Rifkind earns £67,000 as an MP, a further £14,876 as chair of the ISC and received £270,868 in directorships and consultancies between January 2014 and January 2015. Straw told Radio 4’s Welcome to Westminster programme that higher salaries would attract a “different category of person” to aspire to become an MP. Straw said: “I think there is [a] really serious issue these days of making politics sufficiently attractive for the brightest and best in our society and quite a number of us on both sides are privately concerned about this.” |