Galloway facing suspension from Commons

Matthew Tempest and agencies
Tuesday July 17, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

George Galloway on July 15 2006. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images.

George Galloway should be suspended from the Commons for 18 days, the standards watchdog recommended today.The finding comes in the wake of an investigation by the commissioner for parliamentary standards into payments to the now-defunct Mariam Appeal charity.

The suspension - which would see the controversial Respect MP stripped of his salary and barred from the Commons - will now be formally voted on by the House of Commons.

The suspension is for 18 sitting days and would begin once the house returns in the autumn.

The Bethnal Green & Bow MP reacted angrily to the judgment, issuing a statement reiterating that he had never personally benefited from any monies used by the charity.

Mr Galloway said: “Once more and yet again I have been cleared of taking a single penny or in any way personally benefiting from the former Iraqi regime through the oil for food programme or any other means.

“After a four-year inquiry - costing a fortune in public funds - the report asks me to apologise for not registering consistently the Mariam Appeal I established (the Commissioner concedes that I did so, but randomly) and for using House of Commons resources allocated to me to campaign against the policies of those now sitting in judgment on me.”

The Commons standards and privileges committee of MPs acknowledges that “had these been the only matters before us, we would have confined ourselves to seeking an apology to the house”.

But the committee criticised Mr Galloway’s conduct aimed at “concealing the true source of Iraqi funding” for a charity he set up and failure to cooperate with the parliamentary commissioner for standards.

The mammoth three-volume report has more than 20 conclusions, but only two recommendations - that Mr Galloway’s use of parliamentary resources to aid the Mariam Appeal was “unreasonable” and would have resulted in a call for an apology.

However, the report states that because of Mr Galloway’s unwillingness to cooperate with their inquiry, and his attitude and “calling into question of the commissioner’s and our own integrity”, the MP had damaged the reputation of the House of Commons and should be suspended for 18 sitting days.

That punishment is expected to commence on October 8, the day parliament returns from the summer recess.

It is subject to approval from a vote of all MPs.

The specific areas in which the report agrees with the findings of the investigation of the commissioner for parliamentary standards, Sir Philip Mawer, are that Mr Galloway:

· Did not register his interest in the Mariam Appeal, or the individual donations it received above the registration threshold;

· Did not declare his interest in the Mariam Appeal on all occasions when he should have done so;

· Used his parliamentary office and staff in support of the Mariam Appeal to an excessive extent;

· Breached the advocacy rule in the terms in which it was in force at the time.

Speaking at an impromptu press conference outside parliament, Mr Galloway accepted the suspension, joking: “To be deprived of the company for 18 days of the honourable ladies and gentleman behind me [in parliament] will be painful … but I’m intending to struggle on regardless.”

But, pointing out that the suspension only came about because of the way he conducted his defence, Mr Galloway insisted: “What really upset them [the committee] is that I always defend myself.

“I am not a punchbag. If you aim low blows at me, I’ll fight back.”

He complained he had been convicted by a committee of “Sir Humphrey…Sir Bufton and Sir Tufton”.

In a 20-minute rebuttal, accompanied by a large dossier put out by Respect, Mr Galloway admitted he never asked the three main donors to the appeal, the King of Saudi Arabia, the late Emir of the United Arab Emirates and Farwaz Zureikat, where their money came from, but complained he had been convicted by a “overwhelmingly pro-war House of Commons”.

Other MPs who have in the past been suspended from the Commons include Labour’s Keith Vaz and the Tory Jonathan Sayeed.

Mr Vaz was suspended for a month for “wrongly interfering” with a second investigation by a previous parliamentary commissioner, Elizabeth Filkin, into his business dealings, while the Tory MP Mr Sayeed was suspended for taking payments for showing guests around the Houses of Parliament.

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