Conduct of Mr George Galloway
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges Conduct of Mr George Galloway Sixth Report of Session 2006–07 Volume III Oral Evidence taken by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 16 July 2007 HC 909–III Published on 17 July 2007 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £15.50 Committee on Standards and Privileges The Committee on Standards and Privileges is appointed by the House of Commons to oversee the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards; to examine the arrangements proposed by the Commissioner for the compilation, maintenance and accessibility of the Register of Members’ Interests and any other registers of interest established by the House; to review from time to time the form and content of those registers; to consider any specific complaints made in relation to the registering or declaring of interests referred to it by the Commissioner; to consider any matter relating to the conduct of Members, including specific complaints in relation to alleged breaches in the Code of Conduct which have been drawn to the Committee’s attention by the Commissioner; and to recommend any modifications to the Code of Conduct as may from time to time appear to be necessary. Current membership Rt Hon Sir George Young Bt MP (Conservative, North West Hampshire) (Chairman) Rt Hon Kevin Barron MP (Labour, Rother Valley) Rt Hon David Curry MP (Conservative, Skipton & Ripon) Mr Andrew Dismore MP (Labour, Hendon) Nick Harvey MP (Liberal Democrat, North Devon) Mr Brian Jenkins MP (Labour, Tamworth) Mr Elfyn Llwyd MP (Plaid Cymru, Meirionnydd Nant Conwy) Mr Chris Mullin MP (Labour, Sunderland South) The Hon Nicholas Soames MP (Conservative, Mid Sussex) Dr Alan Whitehead MP (Labour, Southampton Test) Powers The constitution and powers of the Committee are set out in Standing Order No. 149. In particular, the Committee has power to order the attendance of any Member of Parliament before the committee and to require that specific documents or records in the possession of a Member relating to its inquiries, or to the inquiries of the Commissioner, be laid before the Committee. The Committee has power to refuse to allow its public proceedings to be broadcast. The Law Officers, if they are Members of Parliament, may attend and take part in the Committee’s proceedings, but may not vote. Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at: www.parliament.uk/sandp. A list of Reports of the Committee in the present Parliament is at the back of this volume. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Dr Christopher Ward (Clerk), Dr Susan Griffiths (Second Clerk) and Miss Michelle Owens (Secretary). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to The Clerk of the Committee on Standards and Privileges, Journal Office, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6615. Conduct of Mr George Galloway 1 Contents Page Introduction 3 Oral evidence taken by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards 4 1. Dr Burhan Mahmoud Al-Chalabi—20 April 2006 4 2. Mr David Blair—14 August 2003 24 3. Mr George Galloway—24 February 2005 40 4. Mr George Galloway—30 November 2006 58 5. Mr Tony Zureikat—20 December 2005 84 6. Mr Sabah Al-Mukhtar—1 March 2006 104 7. Mr Stuart Halford—6 October 2005 108 2 Conduct of Mr George Galloway Conduct of Mr George Galloway 3 Introduction This volume contains all the oral evidence appended to the report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards on the complaints by Mr Andrew Robathan MP and Mr Andrew Yale (a member of the public) against Mr George Galloway MP. It consists of 5 oral evidence sessions, at which a full verbatim record was taken, and 2 meetings, in respect of which a summary was subsequently agreed by all parties present. The oral evidence received has been lightly edited to remove personal details or other material irrelevant to a conclusion on the complaints. Procedural exchanges between the Commissioner and each witness at the beginning and end of each interview have also been omitted to avoid unnecessary repetition and printing. Page, paragraph and line numbers quoted by the Commissioner or witnesses are those which originally appeared in either written or oral evidence and may no longer apply where the evidence in question has been re-formatted as part of the Commissioner’s report. Annex 1 of the Commissioner’s report in Volume 1 lists all those mentioned in the report, including those from whom the Commissioner received evidence in the course of his inquiry. It also indicates the relevant position(s) held by those who gave the Commissioner evidence. 4 Conduct of Mr George Galloway Oral evidence taken by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards 1. Dr Burhan Mahmoud Al-Chalabi—20 April 2006 Mr Tom Healey, Clerk, and Mr Sabah Al-Mukhtar, Dr Al-Chalabi’s lawyer, were also present. Q1 Sir Philip Mawer: The focus of the questions that I want to put to you and the reason why I have asked to see you is that you have been named in reports published in the United States—reports produced by the Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations,1 and also by the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the UN Oil-for-Food Programme2—you have been named as a recipient of an oil contract under the oil-for-food programme. The heart of the allegation that is made in those reports is that in receiving that contract, and the commission that went with that contract, you were essentially being used as a conduit to enable monies to go to Mr Galloway either directly or indirectly, or through the Mariam appeal to further his work. That is the focus of the questions that I want to put to you. It does not, I am sure, come as a surprise to you because I know you have read the Volcker (which is the UN Committee) report, and you have also read the Senate report. We have sent you exhibits attached to those reports which we believe to be relevant to the allegations made in those reports concerning you. I pause at that point because I want to give you the opportunity, and Mr Al-Mukhtar the opportunity, to say anything that you want to say about the terms on which we are about to have our conversation. Dr Al-Chalabi: So far I am happy. I am grateful to you for that, thank you. Q2 Sir Philip Mawer: I wonder if we could begin by you giving me your full name. This is just so that we can be clear for the record. Dr Al-Chalabi: My name is Burhan Mahmoud Al-Chalabi. Q3 Sir Philip Mawer: When was your date of birth? Dr Al-Chalabi: 1 March 1947. Q4 Sir Philip Mawer: And your nationality is? Dr Al-Chalabi: I am now a British citizen. I have been so since 1996. Q5 Sir Philip Mawer: Are you also an Iraqi citizen? Dr Al-Chalabi: No, I am not. Q6 Sir Philip Mawer: You do not have joint nationality? Dr Al-Chalabi: No, I do not. Q7 Sir Philip Mawer: Can I ask you about the nature of your business? I understand you have a number of business activities in which you are involved. I do not want those in detail but I in essence want to know what your occupation is. Dr Al-Chalabi: Property developer. 1 Report of the US Senate Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigation, published 27 October 2005. 2 Report of the Independent Inquiry Committee (the Volcker Committee) into the UN Oil for Food Programme, published 25 October 2005. Conduct of Mr George Galloway 5 Q8 Sir Philip Mawer: Do you have other business interests apart from property development? Dr Al-Chalabi: No. Q9 Sir Philip Mawer: Could I ask when you first met George Galloway? Dr Al-Chalabi: I need to give a bit of background. I had a good idea of taking a flight, a mercy flight, from London to Baghdad. I worked quite a lot on it and came to the conclusion that it was too difficult for me. Then he appeared on the scene, on television, with the Red Bus. He took a bus round the Middle East, and I thought it would be a good idea to raise the profile of my mercy flight by asking for his help, so I called at the House of Commons and spoke to him. It must have been late 1999. There were some offices around here and I met him there and I explained my ideas and he was happy to—he said he would help. Q10 Sir Philip Mawer: So were you the genesis then of the idea for the mercy flight which subsequently took place? Dr Al-Chalabi: It did not take place. Subsequently it was cancelled. Q11 Sir Philip Mawer: Right. It featured though in a deal of the publicity, I think , surrounding the Mariam appeal. Dr Al-Chalabi: Yes. I asked for his help and he persuaded me that for him to be able to work it should be done in the Mariam appeal, but the entire idea was my idea. Basically the mercy flight, my idea, was to take children of expatriates, to take nurses, to take doctors, to Iraq in order to highlight the focus of attention on the damage and the suffering that had been caused to the Iraqi people by the sanctions regime of the United Nations.