Opposition leader Cameron demands inquiry into new sleaze charges against Labour figures

Cameron demands inquiry into new sleaze charges

LONDON — Get out your shin guards, British election season is here.

Mud was flying in all directions Tuesday as opposition leader David Cameron, still leading in pre-election opinion polls, took aim at the Labour Party over allegations three former Cabinet ministers touted their services to lobbyists.

He called Labour leaders “appalling people” who had to be removed — pronto — for the good of the nation, and said the political system is more broken than ever.

“No wonder there is a deepening suspicion that politicians are out to serve themselves and not the country,” Cameron said the morning after a Channel 4 program showed several Labour figures — and one Conservative — seeking highly paid work from a purported lobbyist who was actually an undercover TV reporter.

Cameron demanded a formal inquiry, promised stiff new ethics rules if his party wins the election, and said the Conservative legislator who boasted on camera that he would soon be installed in the House of Lords would not, in fact, be elevated to that high position.

The attacks were personal, direct — and guaranteed to make the TV news as the general election nears. A vote must be called by June 3, with many expecting a May 6 poll date.

The new allegations put Prime Minister Gordon Brown, once again, squarely on the defensive as he tried to rally Labour back from the brink.

He said an inquiry was not needed even as the offending parties were ostracized from the inner sanctum of the Labour Party, which has governed since a fresh-faced Tony Blair won a landslide in 1997.

All three were suspended from the parliamentary Labour Party. They are: Geoff Hoon, the former defense chief; Stephen Byers, the former transport minister, and Patricia Hewitt, the ex-health secretary. They have denied trying to trade their influence for cash.

Byers was filmed by an undercover television documentary crew apparently offering to use his contacts and access on behalf of private clients for 5,000 pounds ($7,500) per day. In the secretly filmed footage — broadcast on the “Dispatches” program — he boasts that he had been able to alter new laws on behalf of major companies. Byers later retracted his claims.

Hoon, who served as Britain’s minister of defense at the time of the invasion of Iraq, is seen saying that he looks forward to “translating my knowledge and contacts about sort of (the) international scene into something that, bluntly, makes money.”

Both he and Hewitt were filmed suggesting they would charge 3,000 pounds a day for their services. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

A fourth Labour lawmaker, Margaret Moran, who also appeared on the program, was suspended from the party as well.

The office of the parliamentary standards commissioner, John Lyon, said Tuesday it is considering complaints made against Hoon, Hewitt and Byers — who referred himself to the sleaze watchdog, but is also the subject of a complaint from another lawmaker.

Business secretary Peter Mandelson, a seasoned Labour operative who sometimes serves as Brown’s proxy, fought back by pointing out that Cameron had not suspended John Butterfill, the Conservative legislator who boasted to the undercover reporter that he would likely be appointed to the House of Lords, increasing his influence.

“The best remark I can make about Mr. Cameron is that people in glass houses should not throw stones,” said Mandelson, who has twice been forced out of top government positions because of ethics issues.