Westminster Eye
How refreshing to be able to write about a Labour scandal for once. Mohammed Sarwar, the millionaire Labour MP for Glasgow Govan, has been accused of giving Ł5000 to Badar Islam, an Independent Labour candidate, for toning down his campaign against Sarwar and concentrating his efforts on the other candidates. A second candidate, Peter Paton, standing as an unofficial Labour candidate, has complained to the police about Mr Sarwar’s bribery.
Glasgow Govan was one of the most bitterly fought seats this election, with Labour and the Scottish National Party battling it out in this and many other seats in Scotland. Mohammed Sarwar has previously been embroiled in scandal, when the internal Labour election for his candidacy of Glasgow Govan had to be re-run due to irregularities in recruiting party members just before the election.. Labour have not wasted any time in dealing with this, promising to discipline Mr Sarwar, possibly to the extent of expelling him from the party if he is charged. If he were convicted, he would be expelled from the House of Commons. Mr Sarwar for his part denies any wrongdoing, and is consulting his solicitors for a defamation case.
The Conservative Party are not surprisingly keeping quiet for the moment, since their scandal record is a little to ‘impressive’ for them to claim Labour corruption. Of course their isn’t any great internal party corruption in Labour, nor is there much in the Conservative Party itself - rather than it operating as a government. Power breeds corruption, and Labour have not had the chance to be properly corrupt yet (although their local authority record is rather worrying). In the Sarwar case, Mr Dewar, the Scottish Secretary, has asked the Advocate-General to investigate the case, taking it far higher than it would be done usually. All the relevant people got their say too, with the Home Secretary, Jack Straw saying that with a breach of parliamentary rule, the law would have to take its course. The Chief Whip (responsible for discipline among other things in the party) informed Mr Sarwar that no disciplinary action would take place yet.
Of course Labour can do without this sort of scandal occurring so soon in a parliamentary term, but Blair will have to accept it as part of the job as Prime Minister. If Mohammed Sarwar was charged and expelled from the party or the Commons, it may work to Labour’s advantage in showing that they are prepared to keep their own house clean, having spent so much effort in criticising the Conservatives’. Mr Sarwar may find himself as a victim of a zealous Labour administration, but allegations of corruption in a General Election, even if for only one seat are one of most fundamentally serious that can be made, and if it was true, most of the Commons, including Labour Members, will be glad to see the back of him
