The Conservatives launched a robust rearguard action yesterday to defend their controversial treasurer, Mr Michael Ashcroft.
Calling for a debate in the Commons to reform procedures on parliamentary privilege, the deputy shadow leader of the Commons, Sir Patrick Cormack, said accusations made about individuals who could not answer in the Commons "should only be made if there is real substance in those allegations".
Parliamentary privilege allows MPs to make comments in the chamber that are protected from legal action.
The Conservatives were responding to comments made in the Commons this week by the Labour MP for the Wrekin, Mr Peter Bradley, who used parliamentary privilege to refer to a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) document which suggested Mr Ashcroft was linked to drug-trafficking and money-laundering in Belize.
The London Times repeated the allegation but the US State Department said this week it had no information linking Mr Ashcroft directly with money laundering. On Wednesday, Mr Ashcroft hit back and issued a writ of libel against the Times, its editor, Mr Peter Stothard, and two of the paper's journalists.
Mr Bradley confirmed yesterday that he had been shown documents relating to Mr Ashcroft by the Times but he denied the paper encouraged him to pursue the allegations. "It was quite right and quite responsible in my view to ask whether the Times could confirm what I felt I knew," Mr Bradley told BBC Radio 4.
Confirming that he had received Mr Ashcroft's libel writ, Mr Stothard said his paper was involved in a serious, long-term investigation of a matter of public interest and he denied the Times was working with Mr Bradley to increase the pressure on the Tories to sack their treasurer. "This is just a tactic by Mr Ashcroft and Conservative Central Office," said Mr Stothard.