World News - Miliband defends Labour over Flowers

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  • xman
    Admin
    • Sep 2006
    • 24007

    World News - Miliband defends Labour over Flowers

    divdiv class=story-body readability=45 span class=story-date#13; span class=date21 November 2013/span#13; span class=time-textLast updated at /spanspan class=time00:18 ET/span#13; #13; /span#13; #13; #13; #13; #13; #13; #13; #13; #13; p class=introduction id=story_continues_1Labour acted with complete integrity' in its dealings with the Co-op Bank and disgraced ex-chairman Paul Flowers, party leader Ed Miliband has said./p#13; pMr Flowers, 63, a former Labour councillor, is being investigated by police after he was filmed apparently buying drugs./p#13; pThe government is to order a full inquiry into how Mr Flowers was deemed a suitable chairman of the bank./p#13; pMr Miliband said he was utterly confident about Labour's actions./p#13; pDavid Cameron has accused Labour of knowing about the past of Mr Flowers all along./p#13; span class=cross-head'Inappropriate' images/span#13; pMr Flowers apologised after a href=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2508464/Crystal-meth-shame-Co-op-bank-chief-Paul-Flowers.htmla video on the Mail on Sunday website/a showed him handing over £300 in a car, apparently to buy cocaine. /p#13; div class=story-feature wide readability=9#13; a class=hidden href=#story_continues_2Continue reading the main story/a h2Analysis/h2#13; !-- pullout-items--#13; #13; !-- pullout-body--#13; pNumber 10 is straining to tarnish Ed Miliband by association./p#13; pPaul Flowers was unqualified to run a bank that was almost destroyed. Pornography was found on his computer in 2011 when he was a Labour councillor./p#13; pAnd he is now being investigated for allegedly buying crystal meth, cocaine and ketamine./p#13; pOn these facts, the political parties at Westminster agree./p#13; pBut because of Labour's relationship with the co-operative movement and Paul Flowers' former role on an advisory group to the Labour leader, David Cameron accused Labour in the Commons yesterday of knowing about Mr Flowers past all along./p#13; pThis is now a highly political fight between the Conservatives and Labour./p#13; #13; !-- pullout-links--#13; /div p id=story_continues_2It has since emerged that while Mr Flowers was a Labour councillor in Bradford in 2011, what the council called inappropriate but not illegal adult content was found on his computer. He resigned./p#13; pMr Flowers, who has been suspended indefinitely from his post as a minister in the Methodist Church, stood down as chairman of Co-op Bank and deputy chairman of Co-op Group in June./p#13; pIn the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Cameron questioned Mr Flowers' suitability for the role of Co-op bank chairman and his links with Labour. /p#13; pWhy was Reverend Flowers judged suitable to be chairman of a bank? Why weren't alarm bells rung earlier, particularly by those who knew? he said./p#13; pBut Mr Miliband questioned the Conservatives' own ethics, saying they had accepted money from tax exiles./p#13; pa href=http://www.itv.com/news/2013-11-20/labour-acted-with-complete-integrity-over-co-op-bank-miliband-paul-flowers/In an interview with ITV News on Wednesday/a, Mr Miliband said Mr Flowers was somebody who I met with on one occasion and had meetings with a wider group on a couple of other occasions./p#13; pHe was never my close adviser, he added./p#13; pBut the important thing now is to make sure that the Co-op can go from strength to strength in the future and the police need to look at any matters that arise for them./p#13; span class=cross-headFresh accusations/span#13; pAsked if Labour supported an independent inquiry into Mr Flowers' appointment, Mr Miliband said: Well let's see what the government proposes but, look, what I'm utterly confident about is the Labour Party always acts with the utmost integrity and we did on this occasion too./p#13; pAsked if he thought the government had called the inquiry in order to try to embarrass him, Mr Miliband said: I'll leave David Cameron to do what he wants to do./p#13; p id=story_continues_3What I can say with absolute clarity is we've acted with complete integrity on this issue./p#13; pFresh accusations about Mr Flowers have been a href=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510897/Co-op-chief-Paul-Flowers-quit-charity-150-000-false-expenses-claims.htmlpublished in Thursday's Daily Mail/a, which says he resigned from running a drugs charity after allegedly lodging false expenses claims./p#13; pThe BBC has not independently verified this claim./p#13; pThe inquiry into the Co-op is to be ordered by George Osborne and arranged by the Prudential Regulation Authority under powers the chancellor obtained in the 2012 Financial Services Act, the BBC's Robert Peston reported./p#13; pOur correspondent said that when Mr Flowers appeared before the Treasury Select Committee of MPs on 6 November, he appeared to have no grasp of basic facts about the bank./p#13; pMr Flowers had never worked in the banking sector in any senior capacity, he said, but had been appointed chairman of the Co-op Bank as a result of a power struggle within the co-operative movement./p#13; pThe independent inquiry cannot begin until police have concluded their investigation into allegations that Mr Flowers bought and used illegal drugs./p#13; /div/divbrbrcentera href=http://www.wizardrss.comPowered By WizardRSS.com/a | a href=http://www.wizardrss.comFull Text RSS Feed/a | a href=http://www.amazon.com/RFID-Blocking-Cards-Identity-Protector/dp/B00CJHZLEWRFID/a | a href=http://www.wpzonbuilder.comAmazon Affiliate/a/center
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