MPs to rule on sleaze report

The long-awaited report on the cash for questions affair will finally be presented to MPs tomorrow and will probably be published within the next week.

The report, prepared by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Sir Gordon Downey, will rule on whether Neil Hamilton, the ex-Conservative MP who lost his Tatton seat to Martin Bell at the general election, accepted cash for asking questions on behalf of Mohamed al Fayed, the owner of Harrods. It will also examine allegations against a number of other ex- MPs and MPs.

The report will be presented to the Standards and Privileges Committee at its first meeting of the new parliamentary session today. Although it will probably not publish the report straight away, there is concern that unless they issue it quickly, its contents may leak out.

Mr Hamilton has admitted lying about pounds 10,000 he received from the lobbyist Ian Greer, but has consistently denied taking cash to ask questions.

t Allegations against two Government ministers accused of failing to declare an expenses-paid trip to meet the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic could be referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Speaker Betty Boothroyd said yesterday. David Clark, civil service minister, and John Reid, a defence minister, have dismissed newspaper claims their trip in 1993, when both were shadow defence ministers, had been a secret.