Two of Britain's senior members of parliament have been caught up in a ‘cash for access’ television sting after they were secretly filmed offering their services to a fictitious Chinese company in return for thousands of pounds.
While Conservative party MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind was suspended from his party, Labour MP and former foreign secretary Jack Straw suspended himself from his party pending an investigation.
They have both referred themselves to the UK Parliamentary Standards Committee.
Reporters for 'The Daily Telegraph' and Channel 4's ‘Dispatches’ programme posed as staff of a fake Hong Kong based firm as part of the joint sting operation.
They contacted the MPs to say they were seeking to hire senior British politicians to join the company's advisory board.
Rifkind reportedly claimed he could arrange ‘useful access’ to British ambassadors because of his status. Straw boasted of operating ‘under the radar’ to use his influence to alter EU rules on behalf of a commodity firm that paid him 60,000 pounds a year.
Both men defended themselves with Sir Malcolm saying he had ‘nothing to be embarrassed about’ and Straw saying he had done nothing ‘morally wrong’.
British Prime Minister David Cameron waded into the controversy, saying ‘these are very serious matters’. "MPs being paid to lobby is not acceptable -- that is not allowed under the rules," he said.
British MPs are allowed to take up other employment as long as it is declared but are forbidden from acting as an ‘aid advocate’ in Parliament.
The opposition Labour party has called for a ban on the MPs from being paid as directors and consultants.’
