Galloway faces Commons suspension

LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) Respect MP George Galloway should be suspended from the House of Commons for 18 days for bringing parliament into disrepute during an inquiry into his Iraq charity, a committee of MPs said today.

The standards committee made the recommendation after it criticised Galloway for ''conduct aimed at concealing the true source of Iraqi funding of the Mariam Appeal''.

The appeal was set up by Galloway in 1998 to provide medical help to Iraqis during the last years of Saddam Hussein's rule when the country was under international sanctions.

The committee's report criticised Galloway's response to the Commissioner for Standards and the Committee on Standards and Privileges.

''Mr Galloway's conduct aimed at concealing the true source of Iraqi funding of the Mariam Appeal,'' it said.

''His conduct towards Mr David Blair and others involved in this inquiry, his unwillingness to cooperate fully with the commissioner, and his calling into question of the commissioner's and our own integrity have in our view damaged the reputation of the House.

''In accordance with precedent, we recommend that he apologise to the House, and be suspended from its service for a period of 18 actual sitting days.'' The anti-war MP for Bethnal Green and Bow said: ''The House would do well to honestly calibrate exactly how its reputation on all matters concerning the war in Iraq stands with the public before deciding who precisely has brought it into disrepute.'' The committee also called for Galloway to apologise to the house for not registering and declaring his interests and for using Commons' resources to support his work for the Mariam Appeal.

Galloway denies that he benefited personally from any Iraq funds and accused the committee's inquiry of being ''politicised''.

''Once more and yet again I have been cleared of taking a single penny or in any way personally benefiting from the former Iraqi regime through the Oil for Food programme or any other means,'' he said.

''Moreover I never asked any of the Mariam Appeal's donors -- the King of Saudi Arabia, the Emir of UAE, or Fawaz Zureikat, the chairman of the appeal -- from where they earned the wealth from which they made donations to a campaign to end sanctions and war.'' The committee has recommended he be suspended for 18 days from October 8, after the summer recess.

MPs will have to vote in the House of Commons to confirm the suspension.

Reuters SKB GC1756