Hain hung out to dry by PM Brown
Gordon Brown has hung cabinet minister Peter Hain out to dry by insisting that his future is out of his hands. Gordon Brown has hung cabinet minister Peter Hain out to dry by insisting that his future is out of his hands. The Prime Minister said Mr Hain was doing "a great job" as Work and Pensions Secretary. However, he said his fate would be decided by two inquiries into his failure to declare £103,000 in donations and loans to his campaign for Labour's deputy leadership. Both the parliamentary standards watchdog and the Electoral Commission are investigating how Mr Hain broke the rules. He says it was an oversight rather than any attempt to hide where the money came from. But direct criticism of his conduct by the watchdog bodies or a suspension from the Commons would force him to resign. Mr Brown said: "Peter has done a great job, and it would be a great loss if he had to leave the Government. "He took his eye off the ball, and he has apologised. The matter must rest with the authorities who will look at all these matters. "It would be my expectation that he will carry on in government," the Prime Minister added. Mr Brown said no-one was suggesting that anyone had wrongfully given money to Mr Hain's campaign, and insisted that the issue was one of delay in registering the donations. Read the full story in the Express & Star By London Editor John Hipwood
Gordon Brown has hung cabinet minister Peter Hain out to dry by insisting that his future is out of his hands. The Prime Minister said Mr Hain was doing "a great job" as Work and Pensions Secretary.
However, he said his fate would be decided by two inquiries into his failure to declare £103,000 in donations and loans to his campaign for Labour's deputy leadership. Both the parliamentary standards watchdog and the Electoral Commission are investigating how Mr Hain broke the rules.
He says it was an oversight rather than any attempt to hide where the money came from.
But direct criticism of his conduct by the watchdog bodies or a suspension from the Commons would force him to resign.
Mr Brown said: "Peter has done a great job, and it would be a great loss if he had to leave the Government.
"He took his eye off the ball, and he has apologised. The matter must rest with the authorities who will look at all these matters.
"It would be my expectation that he will carry on in government," the Prime Minister added.
Mr Brown said no-one was suggesting that anyone had wrongfully given money to Mr Hain's campaign, and insisted that the issue was one of delay in registering the donations.
Yet opposition MPs continued to ask questions about an apparently non-functioning think-tank, the Progressive Policy Forum, which channelled more than £50,000 into Mr Hain's campaign from individuals.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne today defended his failure to declare to the parliamentary authorities nearly £500,000 in donations given to the Conservative Party.
The money was declared by the party to the Electoral Commission but was not registered with the Commons even though some of the donors had specified that it should go towards the cost of running Mr Osborne's office.
He said that he had taken advice from the House of Commons authorities, but the rules were unclear.
"We always sought to be open and transparent. We went ourselves to the House of Commons authorities before this was in the headlines, before anyone asked any questions about it," said the shadow chancellor.
By London Editor John Hipwood
