UK: Dossier on Tory leader submitted

[emad]

Following reports this weekend that a recent poll showed the Conservative party had taken a 5 point lead over Labour in the opinion polls - from 33% to 38% - the spotlight is now focused on allegations of impropriety regarding the Tory leader's employment of his wife Betsy:

The UK's BBc News reports that:

Journalist Michael Crick has handed over a dossier to the Westminster standards watchdog over allegations about Iain Duncan Smith's employment of his wife as an aide. The Tory leader has already rejected any suggestion of wrong-doing and said he would himself hand over the full details to Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Mr Crick said: "A number of senior Tories have made serious allegations to Newsnight over the last few months about the way in which Iain Duncan Smith employed his wife... Given the nature of the sources and the allegations they are making, plus other evidence that we have gathered, and given Mr Duncan Smith's threats to sue, I felt the best course of action is to take this to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. It now seems that Mr Duncan Smith has decided the same thing and let's hope that he (Sir Philip) can resolve it."

Meanwhile Vanessa Gearson, the senior Tory aide who first raised concerns about Mr Duncan Smith's employment of his wife, was today thought to be in discussions with party officials. Ms Gearson arrived at Conservative Central Office in Westminster without commenting to waiting reporters. Tory foreign affairs spokesman Michael Ancram blamed the allegations on a conspiracy of a "malicious" minority of Tory MPs. "It takes very, very few people to carry out a malicious exercise like this and when I was party chairman there were people doing exactly the same thing," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Mr Ancram added that he was confident any inquiry would exonerate his party leader. Sir Philip will decide whether or not there is a case to answer after examining Mr Crick's dossier.

In a statement issued through Conservative Central Office on Sunday, Mr Duncan Smith said: "I completely and absolutely rebut any allegation about wrong-doing. Because of this I had already decided to take the issue to the parliamentary commissioner for standards so that we can see the full facts and clear this up once and for all. These allegations are without foundation and are malicious. I have also instructed my lawyers to review the press reports with a view to taking legal action."

Mr Crick, a freelance journalist who also works for the BBC, has compiled a dossier on the allegations for Sir Philip asking him to investigate whether parliamentary rules have been broken. Mrs Duncan Smith was on her husband's payroll during his first year as party leader, drawing a share of his office allowance from the taxpayer. The BBC's political correspondent Guto Harri said the parliamentary rule book does not exclude that. It makes clear the staffing allowance is available to "meet the costs wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred on the provision of staff to help members perform their parliamentary duties".

<snip>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3186038.stm

This is not the first time questions have been asked about Mrs Duncan Smith's part time employment opportunities. In the mid-1980s she worked in a secretarial capacity for a senior member of the UK Royal Family and left under a cloud following a spate of harassment litigations that her employers won in the high court against members of the Opus Dei sect.