Downing Street Says » Shahid Malik

Asked to comment on the Shahid Malik inquiry, the PMS said that there were two issues relating to Shahid Malik; there were specific allegations that were made against him arising in relation to the Ministerial Code. These had been investigated very thoroughly by Sir Philip Mawer and at Shahid Malik s request we did publish the full report with minimal redactions made to it. Sir Philip Mawer, who was independent, had concluded that there was no violation of the Ministerial Code.

The other issues that were being raised were being addressed by Shahid Malik, in the sense that he was responding to the specific questions that were being put to him. Shahid Malik was not the only MP to find himself on the front page of the Daily Telegraph and the PMS was sure he wouldn t be the last. No allegations had been made against Mr Malik suggesting that he had breached the Ministerial Code and like all MPs, Mr Malik would have to have all of his expense claims re-examined by the independent panel. That was the right way of dealing with these things in the view of the Prime Minister.

Asked if he was satisfied that Sir Philip Mawer had all the relevant facts when he completed his report, the PMS said that it was a matter for Sir Philip Mawer to decide what the relevant facts were given the remit that he had been set. Asked whether the Prime Minister was content that the report was completed with all the relevant facts available, the PMS said that if people were aware of any other facts that were connected to that investigation then they should bring them forward.

Asked if he was aware of any part of the report that referred to Mr Malik claiming money under his IEP allowance and paying for the rent of office space, the PMS replied that this was a report into whether or not Shahid Malik was in breach of the Ministerial Code given the accusations that were made in the Daily Telegraph that he was in receipt of a subsidised rent. This serious accusation was dealt with in a serious manner by Sir Philip Mawer in his report. If people had other accusations against Mr Malik then they should put them forward, but if people were asking a series of general questions about his expense claims then the PMS said that they were for Shahid Malik to answer.

Asked whether Shahid Malik had told Sir Philip Mawer that there was an additional tenancy agreement on one of the properties concerned for the use of office space, the PMS said that the accusation made against Shahid Malik was that he had been in receipt of a subsidised rent, which was an interest that should have been declared to his Permanent Secretary. Sir Philip Mawer had investigated that specific accusation and had concluded that there was no violation of the Ministerial Code.

Asked if the Prime Minister was confident that Shahid Malik had been entirely honest and open throughout the investigation in regards to telling Sir Philip Mawer all the relevant facts, the PMS said that that was a matter for Sir Philip Mawer; it was for him to decide what the relevant facts were for his investigation. Sir Philip Mawer had examined all of the facts that he considered were relevant and produced a report that was very detailed and very thorough.

Asked if Shahid Malik had behaved properly at all times in relation to the investigation, the PMS said that we would expect all Government Ministers to comply fully with an independent investigator and we had no reason to believe that that was not the case with Shahid Malik.

Put that Sir Philip Mawer had criticised the lack of formality in Shahid Malik s arrangements and was the Prime Minister concerned about this, the PMS said that in light of Sir Philip Mawer s report and as we had said a few days previously, when Mr Malik was re-appointed to the Government the Prime Minister had asked him to put his rental arrangements in respect of the Dewsbury property on to a more formal basis with a formal tenancy agreement that specified the rent to be paid.

Asked if the Prime Minister was fully satisfied that Shahid Malik s arrangements were in order, the PMS said that every single MP was facing questions about their expenses and it was right that they should be given the opportunity to answer them. Mr Malik s expenses, like every other MP would be re-examined and looked at by an independent panel and that was the right way of dealing with these issues.

Asked if Sir Philip Mawer would be able to re-open the investigation if he did not think he had all of the facts at his disposal or would it require the Prime Minister to ask him to re-open the case, the PMS replied that the Ministerial Code made clear that if there was an allegation about a breach of the code and the Prime Minister, having consulted the Cabinet Secretary felt that it warranted further investigations, he would refer the matter to the independent advisor on Ministers interests. The PMS added that we had not heard of any new allegations from the Daily Telegraph this morning that suggested that Shahid Malik was in breach of the Ministerial Code.

Put that Shahid Malik had issued a statement saying that he was paying 200 per month towards office space in a property in Dewsbury, the PMS said he didn t want to get into the detail of this. Sir Philip Mawer had looked at the detail and made his conclusion. The PMS apologised if that conclusion was inconvenient, but Sir Philip Mawer had set out all of the facts in his report that were available to him. Sir Philip Mawer had looked at this in a thorough and objective way and had reached the conclusion that in relation to the specific accusation that had been made, Shahid Malik was not in violation of the Ministerial Code.

Asked if the Prime Minister would be taking steps against any other Ministers who had similar informal rental agreements, the PMS said that we would expect all Ministers to comply with the Ministerial Code and to ensure that all of their affairs were on a proper formal basis.

Asked when the independent panel would start examining MPs expenses, the PMS said that that was a matter for the House of Commons.

Asked if the Prime Minister was comfortable with Shahid Malik paying half of his rent in cash, the PMS said that the Prime Minister had asked Shahid Malik to put his rental arrangements on a more formal basis with a formal tenancy agreement that specified the rent to be paid and for paying all of his rent in the future by direct debit.

Asked if Sir Philip Mawer was satisfied that tax had been paid on the cash rental payments, the PMS said that that would not be a matter for Sir Philip Mawer to investigate as the tax authorities were responsible for those matters. The PMS would not comment on an individuals tax practices and the PMS did not think that people were making accusations about any Government Minister in relation to tax that had been paid.

Put that in a situation where someone was paying in cash it was possible to avoid paying VAT and income tax, the PMS said that those were some serious accusations about individuals and he would not want to comment on them. In regards to Shahid Malik, the issues relating to him had been looked at by Sir Philip Mawer and he had reached his conclusion.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Post a public comment

Name (required)
E-mail (required)
(You must give an email address, but it will not be displayed to the public.)
Website
(You may give your website, and it will be displayed to the public.)

Comments:

This is not a way of contacting the Prime Minister. If you would like to contact the Prime Minister, go to the 10 Downing Street official site.

Privacy note: Shortly after posting, your name and comment will be displayed on the site. This means that people searching for your name on the Internet will be able to find and read your comment.

Original PMOS briefings are © Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Click-use licence number C02W0004089. Material is reproduced from the original 10 Downing Street source, but may not be the most up-to-date version of the briefings, which might be revised at the original source. Users should check with the original source in case of revisions. Comments are © Copyright contributors. Everything else is © Copyright Downing Street Says.

» Thursday, June 11, 2009

Shahid Malik

No Comments »

Post a public comment

Search

Supported by

Recent Briefings

Archives

Links

Syndicate (RSS/XML)

Credits

Enquiries