Labour accused of vote rigging and cronyism

Three of the Government's most senior women were dragged into two separate rows over allegations of vote rigging and cronyism yesterday.

Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, was embroiled in a police investigation into claims that Leicester voters were pressured into completing postal ballots in last week's council elections.

And the husband of Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture, was forced to deny he exploited "privileged access" to Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, a Foreign Office minister, to try to clinch a business deal.

Leicestershire police are investigating claims that Labour candidates visited the homes of voters in an effort to persuade them to fill in postal voting forms. According to The Mail on Sunday, Ms Hewitt was present when a candidate urged a voter to hand over postal votes on the doorstep. She allegedly failed to intervene when another candidate instructed a voter to fill in boxes in Labour's favour. Ms Hewitt then took away the envelope after it had been completed and sealed.

The leaders of the Tories and the Liberal Democrats in Leicester called for a thorough investigation into the allegations.

A complaint has been made to the city's returning officer and Leicestershire police began investigating on 25 April. A spokesman for the force would not discuss the details, saying only: "Investigations are on-going."

Ms Hewitt strongly denied she had been involved in, or witness to, any attempt to influence voters.

Ms Hewitt said: "The idea that somehow it is wrong to ask people to support your candidates or support the Labour Party during an election campaign is frankly bizarre.

"Nobody in my presence or as far as I know at any point in the campaign either broke the law or broke the strict Labour Party guidelines on the subject."

Meanwhile, Ms Jowell's husband, David Mills, said he was "sickened" by claims he had abused his wife's position to further his interests.

Mr Mills, who runs the UK arm of an Iranian firm, wrote to Lady Symons for advice on aircraft sales to Iran after sitting next to her at a dinner party. The company he represented was interested in buying British planes with US-made engines for an Iranian airline. But the deal would have breached a trade embargo America has with Iran.

Lady Symons later replied to Mr Mills and the transaction did not proceed. There was no suggestion that he, Lady Symons or the airline had intended to breach sanctions.

Mr Mills said: "To suggest there was anything improper in either my or her action is incomprehensible. So is the suggestion I enjoy 'privileged access' to ministers. It is completely unjustifiable to infer that, because I meet colleagues of my wife's, I would seek, or have ever had, any kind of special treatment. I have never used such acquaintance for personal gain and would not dream of doing so."

But Michael Ancram, the shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "This has all the whiff of cronyism operating at the highest levels of the Labour Government."