Goldsmith defends role in honours probe
The attorney general has defended his decision not to stand aside from the cash for honours inquiry, despite being a close ally of the prime minister.
Lord Goldsmith said he was the only person answerable to parliament for prosecutions conducted in the UK and that was a responsibility he could not give up.
Questions have been raised about his involvement in a case that has seen senior Labour figures and potentially Tony Blair – who appointed Lord Goldsmith to the post of top lawyer in the UK and who gave him his peerage – questioned about corruption.
No charges have yet been brought, but as attorney general, it is the peer’s job to advise the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on whether to press ahead with the case.
Last week, Lord Goldsmith told the Conservatives his office would appoint an “independent senior counsel to review all the relevant material and advise on any prosecutions” and in an interview this morning, he confirmed this once again.
But he insisted he could not totally distance himself from the case, as the director of public prosecutions (DPP), Ken Macdonald, has already done.
Mr McDonald previously worked with Mr Blair’s wife, Cherie. Similarly, Metropolitan police commissioner Ian Blair has also removed himself from the proceedings because of his close workings with the prime minister for the past few years.
“I think it was put very well by one of my predecessors last week who said there can’t be any question of an attorney general standing aside because of the special constitutional and indeed statutory responsibilities that I’ve got,” Lord Goldsmith told Today.
“I’m responsible. I’m the only person who’s answerable to parliament for the prosecutions that take place in this country.”
But he stressed: “I will make sure that there are procedures in place which will give confidence, if it ever comes to it, that decisions are taken impartially and objectively and it’s my job to make sure that happens.”
He concluded: “We don’t know whether it will ever come to it, I don’t know whether anything will come of this investigation. It isn’t complete, let’s wait and see.”
Metropolitan police officers are investigating whether Labour and the Conservatives took secret contributions from wealthy backers in return for peerages before the last general election. Both parties deny any wrongdoing.
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