Alloa & Hillfoots Advertiser | News | MSP cleared in £15K pay-off row

Sunday, 7th September, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 18th June, 2008 12:00

MSP cleared in £15K pay-off row

By Hamish Hutchinson

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The complaint against Keith Brown MSP has been dismissed.

Pic by: Jan van der Merwe

LET’S stop the squabbling and get down to politics. That’s the call from Keith Brown after he was cleared for not declaring the £15k ‘golden goodbye’ he received for stepping down as a councillor.

The Ochil MSP had been referred to the Scottish Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, Dr Jim Dyer, for not registering the severance pay with the parliament.

Members of Parliament have to publicly register outside earnings or gifts to insure against potential conflicts of interest.

However, Dr Dyer dismissed the complaint as he felt payment from a statutory body for severance was exempt from registration requirements.

The complaint against Mr Brown had been lodged by Steven Watters, who previously stood as a Labour council candidate at the 2003 elections.

Last month local Labour MP Gordon Banks widely criticised Mr Brown for failing to declare the £15k, which he told voters before last year’s election that he wouldn’t accept.

But the SNP MSP said he accepted the money to distribute it between charities and community groups and that he couldn’t say anything before the election as he would be accused of buying votes.

Mr Brown said, “This is the third time I’ve been referred to the Standards Commissioner.

“The first two times as a councillor and each of the three times they’ve found no case to answer or as in this time it’s dismissed.

“This seems to be what Gordon Banks does instead of politics which is regrettable.

“He was well aware the limitations on me discussing the provisions before the election and it was a cynical thing to do on his part.

“I hope now what will happen is the Labour politician will decide to focus on the substantial issues that affect the people such as the post office closures and the 10p tax rise.

“This cries out as a politician in distress who is lashing out and making attacks in this way and it’s regrettable.”

But Mr Banks hit back, “I think Keith Brown should practice what he preaches if he is looking to end these type of questions.

“If you look at his track record, he called people’s actions into question for a decade when he was a councillor, so that kind of preaching doesn’t carry much weight from him.”

The Labour MP accepted Dr Dyer’s decision but felt there were still many unanswered questions regarding the distribution of the money.

He suggested that Mr Brown should put the £15k into an independent Trust allowing organisations to apply for “grants”.

“For the sake of transparency he should put a set of transparent measures in place to distance himself from the money in question so he is not seen to benefit personally from this money,” he said.

“However, it seems at this time we are a million miles away from that.”

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