Expenses-row Warsi says ‘sorry’ to PM for embarrassment

David Cameron asked Sir Alex Allan, his independent adviser on ministerial interests, to look into the matter after she apologised for failing to disclose her business relationship with Abid Hussain.

Dewsbury-born Lady Warsi, the Conservative Party co-chairman, is facing mounting difficulties with the prospect of separate inquiries into allegations about her House of Lords expenses claims.

Labour said the Prime Minister’s referral of her relationship with Mr Hussain to Sir Alex, despite his steadfast refusal to order a similar inquiry into Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt over his contacts with News Corporation, showed that Mr Cameron was “bending over backwards” to defend Mr Hunt.

Lady Warsi yesterday wrote a letter of apology to Mr Cameron over the Pakistan controversy, saying she was “sincerely sorry” for the embarrassment to the Government.

In her letter to the Prime Minister, she said “community activist” Mr Hussain had assisted the British High Commission with outreach events in Pakistan in July 2010.

Although it was “widely known” that he was her husband’s second cousin, she said, she had not realised the need to declare that they also had “a common business interest as minority shareholders in a small food company”.

“I sincerely regret that I did not consider the significance of this relationship with Mr Hussain when the arrangements for the visit were being made. In retrospect, I accept that I should have made officials aware of the business relationship between Mr Hussain and myself, and for this I am sorry,” she wrote.

“I regret that this failure may have caused embarrassment to the Government.”

The Prime Minister responded that he accepted her apology but was asking Sir Alex to “consider the issues that have been raised with respect to the Ministerial Code and to provide advice to me as rapidly as possible”.

He said she should have “proactively” raised the business interest she shared with Mr Hussain with the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office.

He wrote: “The Ministerial Code requires ministers to ensure no real or perceived conflict between their official responsibilities and their personal interests.”

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Michael Dugher said it was right for Mr Cameron to call in Sir Alex over the issue.

But he said the Prime Minister’s actions with Lady Warsi drew into “sharp relief his refusal to hold a similar investigation into Jeremy Hunt”.

“David Cameron is bending over backwards to defend Jeremy Hunt because he knows that it is his own judgment, in appointing a man he knew to be biased to oversee the BSkyB bid, that is in question,” he said.