Sleazebusters named

Tony Blair set up the new body to crackdown on sleaze

Six proposed members of a new sleazebusting body charged with overseeing donations to political parties are set to be approved by MPs on Tuesday.

The new electoral commission was established by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act to enforce new rules on election campaign expenditure.

The list of proposed members, chosen from 223 applicants, was confirmed days after the announcement of three £2m individual donations to the Labour Party.

All party leaders have approved the names, although the Conservatives have criticised the government for the way it handled the process.

Lord Neill: Suggested the commission be set up

The new Act, which comes into force next month, is based on the recommendations of Lord Neill's committee on standards in public life.

Junior Home Office Minister Mike O'Brien, presenting the names to MPs on Monday, said the commission members had to be and must be seen to be as independent of political parties and the government as possible.

Although Home Secretary Jack Straw had been in charge of the mechanics of the selection process, the candidates had not been chosen by him and would in no way owe their appointment to him, Mr O'Brien stressed.

They are appointed for between four and six years to allow a rolling programme of replacements.

The proposed chair is Sam Younger, director general of the British Red Cross and former BBC World Service managing director.

The others are:

Pamela Gordon, a former local authority chief executive and a member of the electoral boundary-setting local government commission for England.

Sir Neil McIntosh, who was the chief counting officer for the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum.

Glyn Mathias, a broadcaster.

Sukhminder Singh, civil service commissioner and member of the criminal cases review commission.

Graham Zellick, an academic.

Conservative home affairs spokesman Nick Hawkins, although acknowledging that Tory leader William Hague had approved the names, accused the government of trying to cover up a shambles.

The home secretary had been forced to write a "grovelling" apology after a press release containing the names was released late last year before they had been debated by MPs, Mr Hawkins said.

Tory MP Gerald Howarth also complained that none of the six appeared to have any business experience and were a "very narrow cross-section" of British society.