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Bell gives Hamilton helping hand in cash-for-questions row

Mr Bell, who won the Cheshire seat from Mr Hamilton at the General Election on May 1, said the report by the Commons Standards Committee of MPs was a fudge.

Mr Hamilton said he had been tried by a "kangeroo court".

The findings, revealed on Thursday, said Mr Hamilton's conduct fell "seriously and persistently" below the standards expected of a member of Parliament, but there was no concrete evidence that he had taken money from the owner of Harrods, Mohamed al Fayed.

Mr Bell said the parliamentary appeals procedure was unsatisfactory. He added that the case showed Parliament needed to look again at self-policing.

The committee said that if Mr Hamilton was still an MP, it would have recommended a lenghty period of suspension. It also said he failed to produce relevant new evidence in his own defence. However it failed to reach a unanimous finding on claims that Mr Hamilton had taken cash for questions.

Two Conservative committee members dissociated themselves from that part of the report after unsuccessfully calling for further evidence to be taken. Ann Widdecombe and Quentin Davies criticised the way the case was decided.

Miss Widdecombe said Mr al Fayed should have been questioned further. She abstained from endorsing the verdict that said Mr Hamilton had taken cash for asking questions. Mr Davies, who voted against, said it was shameful that the MPs had not questioned Mr al Fayed, Mr Hamilton's main accuser.

Mr Hamilton said the decision not to hear more evidence had been a "complete abdication of responsibility". He said: "It's a gross dereliction of duty in my opinion for the committee to brush this matter under the carpet."

He said he was pleased that claims by Parliamentary Commissioner, Sir Gordon Downey, had not been endorsed. However, he added: "I am now left in a limbo land where nobody can say one way or the other whether I did or did not take Fayed's money, whether he did or did not pay me."

Mr Al Fayed's spokesman said the Harrods boss did not regret accusing Mr Hamilton of taking cash for questions. Michael Cole said: "Far from fearing an appearance before the committee ... Mr Al Fayed wanted the opportunity to tell on oath and before the television cameras everything that happened to him at the hands of ministers, Government departments, MPs and Parliamentary lobbyists since he acquired House of Fraser on March 11, 1985."

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