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Politicians clash over second jobs row

Ed Miliband has called on David Cameron to ban MPs from having second jobs "to restore the reputation of this house" following recent allegations against two former foreign secretaries.

Tory MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind is to step down as an MP at the General Election and has also resigned as chairman of the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, he said.

Sir Rifkind and Jack Straw were both suspended from their parties after they were secretly filmed allegedly offering to use their positions and contacts to benefit a private company in return for cash. Both men deny any wrong-doing.

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Jack Straw's statement over cash-for-access claims

Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has referred himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after claims he was secretly filmed by the Daily Telegraph and Channel 4's Dispatches progamme offering to use his position in return for cash.

Jack Straw has voluntarily withdrawn from the Labour Party over the claims. Credit: Matt Crossick/EMPICS Entertainment

Mr Straw, who is standing down at the general election, said in a statement that he made clear from the outset that any discussions he entered into related to what he might do once he left the Commons and not while he was a serving MP.

He said that despite his requests, Dispatches and the Telegraph had not supplied him with a transcript of his conversations with the undercover reporters so he could not identify the context of any of his remarks.

I now face the horrible situation in which what I said is being used to suggest wrongdoing when there was none. But I've spent long enough in politics to know how some of the remarks I made in what I had thought was a private conversation will now be used.

In view of this, and in order to clear my name, I have written to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to make a self-referral to her. I have also written to Rosie Winterton, opposition chief whip, to say that pending consideration of my referral by the Commissioner, I shall voluntarily withdraw from the parliamentary Labour Party.

I am mortified that I fell into this trap, despite my best efforts to avoid this, and my previous public criticism of colleagues of all parties who have done so in the past. Of course I am kicking myself.

However, I am clear that there was nothing that I said in the meetings which was improper. I am proud of my record as member for Blackburn and a parliamentarian over 36 years.

– Jack Straw
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Politicians clash over second jobs row

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