Politics: MPs to demand appeal system in sleaze cases

An appeal system for MPs found guilty of sleaze allegations will be demanded today by dissenting Tory MPs who have refused to sign the report on Neil Hamilton by the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee.

The report, to be published today by the Labour chairman, Sir Robert Sheldon, is expected to please no one. It is not expected to clear Mr Hamilton but a new form of words was agreed by the committee to cover the most damning conclusion that "compelling" evidence found against him by Sir Gordon Downey, the Parliamentary commissioner.

Mr Hamilton denies accepting money from Mohamed Al Fayed, the Harrods owner, in spite of the findings in Sir Gordon's report. Quentin Davies and Ann Widdecombe will attack the committee in separate statements for refusing to call Mr Fayed to be cross-examined over the defence put up by Mr Hamilton on oath before the committee.

Sir Gordon told the committee they would undermine his position if they insisted on cross-examining all those from whom he had taken evidence. The committee's refusal to cross-examine Mr Fayed proved the stumbling- block, which led to Mr Davies and Ms Widdecombe, a former Home Office minister, to refuse to sign their report.

Although Mr Hamilton is a former Tory colleague, the two Tory MPs have established a reputation for independence from the party line - Mr Davies was credited with the scalp of a Tory minister in the last parliament and Ms Widdecombe savaged the former home secretary, Michael Howard, when he was in the running for the Tory leadership.

Their dissenting statements will raise questions about the way the inquiry into allegations against Mr Hamilton was handled by the committee, and its future conduct. Mr Sheldon, a respected former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, failed to get a unanimous report, in spite of hours of wrangling.