Howard Accused of Gambling 'Smear' Bid

By Vivienne Morgan, Political Staff, PA News Tory leader Michael Howard was today accused of a deliberate attempt to smear a civil servant in the row over new gambling rules. Commons Leader Peter Hain also said there had been a “severe deterioration of standards” in Mr Howard’s weekly question time challenges to the Prime Minister. Mr Howard claimed yesterday that the Department of Culture had held talks with big casino operators about “relaxing” money laundering rules. He said the Government had been “offering concessions” and Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell had tried to “cover it up”. The charges were angrily rejected by the Prime Minister, who insisted suggestions that the Government held “corrupt conversations” with casino bosses on weakening money-laundering measures were “utterly absurd”. Earlier this week 29 Labour backbenchers rebelled and voted against the second reading of the Gambling Bill, which will pave the way for Las Vegas-style super-casinos in Britain. During exchanges on future business today, Labour’s Kevin Hughes (Doncaster N) protested: “At Prime Minister’s question time yesterday we saw a quite disgraceful accusation by Mr Howard against a civil servant. “He virtually accused the civil servant of engaging in what could amount to corrupt activities.” MPs could defend themselves in the Commons and the media, but civil servants could not, he pointed out. Mr Hain replied: “There has been a severe deterioration of standards in the questions being asked by Mr Howard. “What we’ve seen is a deliberate attempt to smear a civil servant, which has frankly become all too typical...” Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell had written to Mr Howard “flatly denying” the accusation, he added. “The sooner we get back to tough questions yes, but questions of high integrity the better.”