Ming Campbell has accused the Attorney General of political ineptitude over the information given to the OECD regarding BAE systems.

The Liberal Democrat Leader today received a letter from the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, regarding the affair.

Commenting, Menzies Campbell said:

“These events get curiouser and curiouser.

“Major decisions involving relevant information to the OECD were taken by officials and not by those with direct ministerial responsibility.

“The plain unvarnished truth is that Britain did not reveal significant information to the OECD. Not only was this a lack of candour but it was politically inept since the information was bound to come out eventually.

“These events make yet another powerful case for transparency and more effective scrutiny by Parliament. It will be an irony if the United States Congress gets more information into the public domain than Parliament.”

Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell today challenged Tony Blair at Prime Minister’s Questions to name the minister responsible for withholding information from the OECD.

Mr Blair replied: “If you want to blame anyone for this, blame me. I am perfectly happy to take responsibility for it.”

Ming followed up by asking: “Whatever happened to Robin Cook’s ethical foreign policy?”

The Guardian reports:

Sir Menzies has taken a leading role in criticising the government’s attempts to block scrutiny of the deal.

Yesterday he said: “We need a full investigation to determine whether the Ministry of Defence has been directly involved in processing payments to Prince Bandar.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell has called for an investigation into the Ministry of Defence’s role in processing payments - allegedly totalling £1 billion - to Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia. Responding to the Defence Secretary’s failure to answer questions on the issue, Ming told The Guardian:

“We need a full investigation to determine whether the Ministry of Defence has been directly involved in processing payments to Prince Bandar. The department’s failure to clarify this issue is unacceptable. We need to know whether any payments took place after 2002 and whether they breached anti-corruption legislation. If it appears the law has been broken then it would be a matter for the police.”

Full story on The Guardian’s website: Minister stonewalls on Bandar’s £1bn.

Ming Campbell has called on the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, to answer the allegations made by The Guardian about payments to a Saudi Arabian prince being covered up:

If it is true that information about payments made to Prince Bandar was not given to the OECD, then that is an allegation of the utmost seriousness. It would be unsupportable for Britain to sign up to an international agreement on bribery and then fail to honour its obligations when an investigation comes too close to home.

You can sign the petition for a full inquiry into why the original criminal investigation into bribery and the Al Yamamah arms deal was dropped at www.corruptionisacrime.com

Ming Campbell has challenged Tony Blair to make a statement to the House of Commons after the BBC uncovered evidence that the arms company BAE secretly paid £1bn to Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia in connection with Britain’s biggest ever weapons contract.

Last year, the Serious Fraud Office ended an investigation into BAE’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

Ming said:

“When I questioned the Prime Minister about this issue in the House of Commons, he took full responsibility for the decision to discontinue the investigation into BAE. In light of BBC’s allegations, the Prime Minister must make a full and detailed statement to the House of Commons.”

You can listen to Ming’s interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme here (the item starts 9 minutes in; Ming features around 16 minutes in).