Hain could face police investigation

A police investigation into the manner in which money was donated to Peter Hain's failed Labour deputy leadership campaign could follow Electoral Commission inquiries.

 

Backbench ally of the work and pensions secretary Ian Lucas conceded that a Metropolitan Police probe into the campaign's finances might take place but insisted Hain could get on with his job.

 

Legislation passed by the Labour government allows for criminal prosecutions if rules on political funding are breached, but the Electoral Commission last night declined to say whether this could be the outcome of its inquiry into Hain's donations.

 

Lucas told BBC2's Newsnight: "It's always been a possibility that the police might be brought in, because these are very serious matters".

 

He added: "Peter Hain has said he has made mistakes, he has apologised and gone to the Electoral Commission and gone through all the disclosures that were made...

 

"It was perfectly in order for him to take the money. What was wrong, and he has admitted this, is that he ought to have disclosed it at the time."

 

Hain, who was attending the weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, has promised to co-operate fully with inquiries by the Commission and the parliamentary standards commissioner into his failure to disclose more than £103,000 in donations.

 

Shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling wrote to Hain to say that the issues would prove an ongoing distraction to the work of his department unless he put a swift end to speculation.

 

Grayling said: "My big anxiety is that there are now so many unanswered questions that this is going to prove an ongoing distraction for Mr Hain at a time when his department has so many significant issues to address.

 

"I'm not sure if all these questions will be answered by the parliamentary inquiry, but in any case it is clearly in the interests of all those involved that Mr Hain should give immediate, clear and public answers to all of these questions and put an end to the speculation."