Robinson faces three week Commons ban

Former paymaster general Geoffrey Robinson looks set to be suspended from the House of Commons for three weeks.

The Standards and Privileges committee recommended the move after the multi-millionaire Labour member apparently misled MPs over a payment agreed with the late Robert Maxwell.

In our view, Mr Robinson's conduct falls below the standard the House is entitled to expect of its members.

Standards and Privileges committee

Mr Robinson has issued an apology and said he accepts the findings of the committee although he denies wrongdoing.

The MP was previously criticised for failing to provide "full answers" and withholding information from an earlier inquiry into the £200,000 payment he allegedly received from a company controlled by the disgraced tycoon.

The MP said at the time that he had not received the money.

He was given three months to prove his assertion but failed to do so - hence the recommendation.

Now Mr Robinson has written to committee chairman Sir George Young.

In the letter, he accepted he had given "inadvertently incomplete answers" to an earlier inquiry by Parliamentary Standards Commissioner Elizabeth Filkin, although he insisted that he had no intention of deceiving her.

Apologies

"I have co-operated fully with both the Standards Committee and the Standards Commissioner throughout this inquiry and, while I do of course accept the committee's decision and apologise, the fact is that neither I nor any company associated with me received a payment of £200,000.

"On this, the most serious charge, the committee has rightly refused to find me guilty."

He insisted that he had not attempted to either mislead or to deceive the House.

Despite the ruling the committee said: "We do not assume that payment was made to or benefited Mr Robinson or one of his companies."

Serious breach

But their report also said that the Coventry North West MP had failed to provide parliamentary watchdog Elizabeth Filkin with "full and accurate" responses over the payment.

Robert Maxwell: Died in 1991

"We regard that as a serious breach of the rules of the House," the report said.

"In our view, Mr Robinson's conduct falls below the standard the House is entitled to expect of its members.

"We recommend that Mr Robinson be suspended from the service of the House for three weeks."

Conservative cabinet office spokesman Tim Collins said the MP's conduct amounted to a "very serious parliamentary offence".

"It should be remembered that this is a man who held very senior ministerial office in Tony Blair's government, who appeared to provide a holiday home to Tony Blair who himself has said he provided significant funds to pay for the private office of both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

"I think that perhaps the prime minister and chancellor need to be thinking this afternoon whether they ought to be paying that money back."

Significant

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Norman Baker said the committee's findings were "very significant".

He told the BBC: "The fact is he has been found to have failed to provide proper information and misled the committee and the standards commissioner and he will, if the House agrees, be suspended and that's very significant."

Mr Baker added that the suspension from the Commons would give Mr Robinson "a good deal of bad publicity".