Britain: Northern Secretary Peter Hain was yesterday accused of offering a rebel MP, Peter Law, a peerage not to stand as an independent in last year's general election.
Mr Hain, the Northern Ireland and Wales Secretary, strenuously denied the allegation made in the Commons by Plaid Cymru's Elfyn Llwyd.
On the day of Mr Law's funeral, Mr Llwyd used parliamentary privilege to claim Mr Hain made the approach with Tony Blair's approval.
Mr Law, who died last week, trounced Labour in its former stronghold of Blaenau Gwent after rowing with the party about an all-women shortlist.
Mr Llwyd said: "New Labour, in an effort to prevent him [ Mr Law] from standing for parliament, offered him a peerage. The man named as being responsible is the secretary of state for Wales [ Mr Hain] who made the offer on the specific authority of the prime minister."
The allegation was made by Mr Law's widow, Trish, in a BBC interview last week when she said the offer was put to her husband by an unnamed "high-ranking politician". Labour said her claim was untrue, despite friends of Mr Law coming forward to support it.
Mr Hain, in Cornwall for his father-in-law's funeral, said: "I regard it as an act of cowardice that when Elfyn Llwyd had the opportunity to put this lie to me directly in the House of Commons yesterday, he instead raised it when I was absent at a family funeral and unable to rebut this false accusation." He added: "I am at a loss to understand why it is now being alleged that Peter Law would have made such an accusation about me, when he himself never made that allegation public, even when he was standing in the general election."
Scotland Yard said it was reviewing the allegation but has not launched a full investigation.
Mr Law left Labour in protest against an all-women shortlist imposed on his constituency party. He beat Labour candidate Maggie Jones, now a peer herself, with a majority of more than 9,000 votes.
- (PA)