PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
IAN GREER ASSOCIATES AND CENTRAL TV (26 June 1994)

That this House regrets the refusal by the Chief Executive of Central TV to allow honourable Members to view suppressed investigations by The Cook Programme into the activities of lobbyists, Ian Greer Associates (IGA); is alarmed that Central TV executives forced the production team to abandon further investigations; regards this as especially worrying because IGA had business links with Carlton TV, who took over Central, a relationship which Central's Chief Executive refused to disclose despite a specific written request from the Right honourable Member for Swansea West; believes this censored report is essential viewing for honourable Members, some of whose names were used by IGA, without the knowledge and approval of at least one; thinks it imperative the honourable Members be aware of the way in which IGA claims access to Ministers and their parliamentary private secretaries; recollects longstanding worries in the House about the way in which parliamentary lobbyists operate; notes IGA's lack of scruples in pursuing a contract to represent people who claimed to be former Soviet communists wanting to invest the proceeds of the sale of national art treasures; notes with incredulity that their declared wish to invest the laundered proceeds in the privatisation of the Insolvency Service, Companies House and the Patent Office did not alarm the IGA, obsessed with its greedy pursuit of a particularly sordid contract; and invites the select Committee on Members' Interests to demand that the film be made available so that the House can consider whether further action is needed to curb the activities of IGA.

Sponsored by:
Mr Alan Williams (Labour)