Demands grow for code revamp

Tony Blair is arbiter of the ministerial code

Tony Blair should not be the judge when he and his ministers are accused of wrongdoing, say the opposition parties demanding new measures to keep government in check.

As the fallout from the row over Cherie Blair's links with convicted fraudster Peter Foster continued, the Tories called for complaints about ministers to be judged independently.

There were concerns that the Ministerial Code of Conduct was broken when Mrs Blair used money from her husband's blind trust for her controversial flats' purchase.

Mr Blair, with advice from the country's top civil servant, decided the purchase did not breach the code, but the Tories and Liberal Democrats want the system changed.

Independent panel

Conservative spokesman David Davis said: "The prime minister should not be judge in his own court."

Instead, oversight of the code should be taken away from the prime minister and put in the hands of an independent tribunal as part of a new Civil Service Act.

"The prime minister must not be in a position where is his not only the author of the code of conduct, but ultimately its arbiter.

David Davis says public confidence must be secured

"It is the inability of the prime minister to distinguish between what is politically expedient, and what is proper for the government of the country, that highlights the need for independent external scrutiny of both ministers and special advisers."

The new independent tribunal should include a law lord sitting alongside senior privy counsellors, who are usually ex-cabinet ministers, suggested Mr Davis.

No political party should have a majority on the panel, which would help ensure public confidence of the government's probity, he added.

'Nothing improper'

That call was echoed by Liberal Democrat chairman Mark Oaten.

"If the public are to have confidence in a system designed to ensure propriety in the dealings of ministers, the code must be independently policed," said Mr Oaten.

A Downing Street spokesman told BBC News Online there were "no plans to change the current arrangements".

The spokesman again insisted nothing in Mrs Blair's flat deal had been "illegal or improper".

The Committee for Standards in Public Life, chaired by Sir Nigel Wicks, is currently putting together a report on the boundaries between civil servants, ministers and civil servants.

A blind trust is not a blind trust if the prime minister's wife can get her mitts on the cas

Richard Ottaway
Conservative MP

That inquiry included consultation on how the ministerial code was administered.

When it meets next week, the committee, which does not examine individual complaints, is likely to discuss whether general questions have been raised by the Blairs' specific case.

The committee has already finished speaking to inquiry witnesses and it is doubtful it has taken enough evidence to centre on such issues when its report is published in the New Year.

Richard Ottaway, a Conservative MP on the Commons standards and privileges committee, called for the ministerial code to put on a statutory footing.

He also urged the Wicks committee to look at the "grey area" thrown up by the Blair case, suggesting their blind trust money should have been declared in the register of members' interests.

Blind trusts are designed to prevent ministers from knowing how their assets are invested so they cannot be accused of impropriety.

Downing Street says this does not apply to flats and is aimed at share deals and other things which can be influenced by government decisions.

But Mr Ottaway said: "A blind trust is not a blind trust if the prime minister's wife can get her mitts on the cash and go and buy some flats.

"A blind trust is something which is set up for which the minister who created the blind trust has no say what so ever in the disposal of the proceeds."