PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
CONDUCT OF THE PAYMASTER GENERAL (10 December 1998)

That this House notes with concern the Guardian article of 5 December which stated that the Paymaster General 'was not rich' at the start of his business dealings with Robert Maxwell; notes that the Sunday Express of 29 November stated that Maxwell and the Paymaster General sold two companies (Lock and PSS) from Hollis Industries plc when the Paymaster General was Chairman, for ú2.93 million to a Maxwell company which sold them on the same day for ú4.05 million to another company controlled jointly by the Paymaster General and Robert Maxwell; notes that according to the Sunday Telegraph of 6 December Lock and PSS were worth ú40 million; notes that according to the Sunday Times of 6 December, six months later Hollis Industries plc went into administration owing ú41 million including ú16 million due to AGB International Limited; notes that AGB Internation, where the Paymaster General had been a director, itself then went into administration owing ú164 million including ú1.7 million to the Maxwell pensioners and ú490,285 to the Inland Revenue; notes that the effect of those transactions was to remove ú37 million from the Maxwell empire at a time when Robert Maxwell was using ú300 million of pensioners' money to support his businesses; notes that the financing of the ú37 million of value removed came from creditors of the Maxwell empire which included 33,000 Maxwell pensioners; and calls upon the Paymaster General to repay the ú37 million to the Maxwell pension funds and settle all outstanding liabilities with the Inland Revenue.

Sponsored by:
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative)