Cash-for-questions MP faces expulsion from accountancy

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Tim Smith, the accountant and former minister who was forced to stand down as a Tory candidate just before the election over the cash for questions scandal, faces expulsion from the accountancy profession.

Mr Smith, who was strongly criticised by Sir Gordon Downey, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in his report on the scandal, is being charged by the Institute of Chartered Accountants with bringing the profession into disrepute. The decision to proceed follows an investigation by the ICA started in the wake of the publication of Sir Gordon's report in July and completed on Tuesday.

According to a report in Accountancy Age, Mr Smith faces a tribunal in the autumn in which he could be expelled from the ICA, which would effectively end his career as an accountant

While Neil Hamilton, the other main protagonist in the cash for questions affair, continues to deny having received cash for questions, there is no such doubt with Mr Smith. He admitted having received payments in cash from Mohamed al-Fayed, the owner of Harrods, in return for lobbying services but there is considerable confusion about the precise amount, which Mr Smith has said could have been as much as pounds 25,000.

Sir Gordon was critical not only of Mr Smith's "lack of candour" over the affair but also about the fact that Mr Smith, as an accountant, "should have [been] expected to have more accurate records".

Sir Gordon also raises an Establishment eyebrow at the fact that Mr Smith "appeared quite unconcerned about the implications of receiving money, purportedly on behalf of a company in the form of cash payments directly from one of its officers".

Mr Smith only escaped suspension as an MP because he had left Parliament by the time the report was published.

Following Sir Gordon's report, the Commons standards and privileges committee said had Mr Smith still been a member, "we would recommend a substantial period of suspension from the service of the House".

Mr Smith only stood down as candidate for his safe seat, Beaconsfield, after parts of the evidence given to Sir Gordon were leaked. Mr Smith said last night: "I can't comment" and declined to say whether he was still working as an accountant.