Former foreign secretaries offered to use their political influence on behalf of fictitious Chinese firm set up by Channel 4’s Dispatches

Two former foreign secretaries are facing accusations of being involved in a new “cash for access” scandal by offering to use their political influence in return for payment.

Straw and Rifkind scandal renews questions about MPs' outside interests Read more

The Telegraph and Dispatches said that Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind offered to use their positions as politicians on behalf of a fictitious Chinese company set up by Channel 4’s Dispatches in return for payments of at least £5,000 per day.

Straw, one of Labour’s most senior figures, claimed that he operated “under the radar” to use his influence to change European Union rules on behalf of a commodity firm which paid him £60,000 a year. He also claimed to have used “charm and menace” to convince the Ukrainian prime minister to change laws on behalf of the same firm.

Straw has decided to refer himself to the parliamentary commissioner for standards and suspended himself from the parliamentary Labour party.Rifkind also referred himself to the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In a statement the Labour party described the allegations against Straw as “disturbing”.

Both men can claim that they will not have breached parliamentary rules as long as they disclosed their activities and financial interests at the relevant time in the register of members’ interests.

But the story is likely to raise again the broader, complex debate on whether MPs or peers should be allowed to hold second jobs that allow them to lobby on legislation, or any other political issue, on behalf of private commercial interests.

Rifkind, who chairs the Commons intelligence and security committee, said he could arrange “useful access” to every British ambassador in the world because of his status.

According to the Telegraph, he said that he would submit questions to ministers on behalf of a paying client without revealing their identity.

It is the third time that reporters have been able to expose the willingness of politicians to make themselves available for hire in covert sting operations, but it has not yet been proved that either figure broke a parliamentary rule. The full transcripts of the discussions are not available.

Channel 4 and the Daily Telegraph disclosed that their reporters had approached 12 MPs asking if they would be interested in joining the advisory board of a Chinese company.

Six of the 12 did not respond and one said his contacts were not “for sale”.

Straw and Rifkind agreed to enter discussions with the fictitious company which, they were told, was looking to expand its business interests in Europe and form an advisory board. Undercover reporters met Rifkind at the fictional firm’s Mayfair office in January. Rifkind said he could meet “any ambassador that I wish to see” in London.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Malcolm Rifkind in Channel 4’s Dispatches. Photograph: Channel 4

“They’ll all see me personally,” he added. “That provides access in a way that is useful”.

In a second meeting, Rifkind suggested that he would be willing to write to ministers on behalf of the company without declaring the name of the firm.

According to the Telegraph, Straw explained how he had helped ED&F Man, a commodities company with a sugar refinery in Ukraine, to change an EU regulation by meeting officials in Brussels.

He claimed that he had overturned a law in Ukraine that would have hindered the commodities firm operating a factory they had recently refurbished.

The law made their activities “completely uneconomic” and so Straw took company representatives to see Mykola Azarov, the then Ukrainian prime minister, in September 2011.

“It’s a combination of sort of charm and menace … I mean he [the prime minister] understood.”

Straw’s spokesman said there was nothing inappropriate in him using the “knowledge and experience” he acquired as an MP after he stands down. The spokesman said Straw “has always been full and frank in any work carried out on behalf of ED&F Man” and had declared his role with the firm to Azarov and the European commission.

The spokesman said Straw’s use of the phrase “charm and menace” would have been “colloquial and a purely conversational description of the approach he had adopted”.

Asked about Straw’s boast that he operated “under the radar”, his spokesman said: “This was a reference to his preferred strategy of effecting a change to regulations by discussion and negotiation, rather than conducting a high-profile public campaign.”

Straw’s aides said that when he mentioned the £5,000 fee, he was giving it as an example and not as part of a negotiation.

Rifkind said he believed the “firm” had sought his help as a former foreign secretary rather than as an MP. He said: “I have never undertaken, nor would I undertake, any lobbying as an MP on behalf of any private organisation from which I was receiving remuneration.”

He insisted that when he said he could write to ministers, he was only offering to obtain information that was “already in the public domain”.

Asked by the BBC if he thought the allegations had any bearing on his role as security committee chairman, he said: “None whatsoever.”