Hamilton libel papers promised to watchdog

The parliamentary watchdog investigating the cash-for-questions allegations against the Tory MP Neil Hamilton will be given full access to all government papers in the former trade minister's abandoned libel action.

John Major has written to Sir Gordon Downey, the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards, saying that it would be in the general interest for his investigation to be carried out "as swiftly as possible" and promised to make available all relevant documents. He could inspect all the papers the Government provided to the court.

Sir Gordon meanwhile wrote yesterday to Mohamed al-Fayed, the Harrods' boss at the centre of the allegations, asking him to specify them and to provide supporting evidence.

The government documents at Sir Gordon's disposal will include the minute drawn up by the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robin Butler, of a telephone conversation in which Michael Heseltine, the Deputy Prime Minister, asked Mr Hamilton whether he had a financial relationship with the parliamentary lobbyist Ian Greer, which Mr Hamilton denied.

Mr Hamilton admitted on Tuesday that he had received sums totalling pounds 10,000 from Mr Greer, although he insisted they were fees for introducing the lobbyist to new business.

Mr Major's intervention came amid further allegations, about the MP and his wife accepting payments in kind from Mr Greer and Harrods vouchers from Mr Fayed.

Mr Hamilton dismissed claims that he had charged payments for furniture at the Peter Jones department store in Chelsea to an account kept by Mr Greer's firm, and that Mr Greer had footed the bill for a pounds 1,000 painting from a gallery.

The MP said: "The latest allegations in The Guardian that I received gifts, in addition to the commission payments which I have already announced, are simply another fabrication."

Alan Rusbridger, the editor, said papers supplied by Mr Greer for the libel action "tell the true story of how Mrs Hamilton bought furniture on Mr Greer's account and how Ian Greer Associates also paid for paintings worth almost pounds 1,000 as well as plane tickets."

Mr Fayed said yesterday that he wrote to the chairman of the now-defunct Select Committee on Members' Interests, Sir Geoffrey Johnson Smith, on 5 December 1994, offering to give oral evidence and "laying before the committee some details of my financial dealings with Mr Greer, his company and Mr Hamilton including the payments which Mr Hamilton had asked for in cash and Harrods gift vouchers on 12 occasions between June 1987 and November 1989". The investigation was transferred to the privileges committee, before whom Mr Fayed appeared in November.

Rupert Grey, Mr Hamilton's solicitor, said of the claims concerning the Harrods vouchers: "Like all the other allegations from Mr Fayed, these are without foundation."

In the wake of disclosures that Mr Greer contributed to the election fighting funds of 24 MPs, 21 of them Tory, Conservative Party chairman Brian Mawhinney wrote to constituency chairman and agents yesterday saying that the party did not accept donations if they had "strings attached", or if there was reason to believe they included illegally obtained monies, were from foreign governments or royal families or from unknown sources.