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(Continued from overleaf)
1987
January-April 1987: Left-wing Labour MPs plus Conservative MP Teddy Taylor support Tiny Rowland's barracking of the Government to instigate a DTI Inquiry into the Fayed brothers' acquisition of
Harrods stores combine House of Fraser. Conservative MPs Tim Smith, Neil Hamilton, and Andrew Bowden counter by tabling questions unhelpful to Lonrho, many of which are drafted by House of Fraser's parliamentary lobbyist Ian Greer.
The identified Parliamentary activity by all MPs during 1987 relating to House of Fraser, Lonrho, Tiny Rowland or Fayed, is: Written Questions: Robert Adley, C (1); Andrew Bowden, C (6); John Butterfill, C (1); Dale Campbell-Savours, L (1); Tam Dalyell, L (2); Mark Fisher, L (3); Neil Hamilton, C (1); Jeff Rooker, L (1); Tim Smith, C (14); Teddy Taylor, C (2).
Oral Questions: Dale Campbell-Savours, L (4); Sir Alex Fletcher, C (1); Teddy Taylor, C (2).
Parliamentary Motions: Neil Hamilton, C (1)
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3 April 1987: Lobbyist Ian Greer writes to 6 Conservative MPs to pass on an invitation from Mohamed Fayed for a historical tour of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor's former Paris villa.
Fayed's lobbyist Ian Greer wrote to six Conservative MPs to pass on an invitation for a tour of the former Duke & Duchess of Windsor's villa, outside Paris, (on which Fayed had acquired a 50-year lease from the City of Paris) coupled to a stay at the Paris Ritz (which Fayed owned). Those Greer invited included the three members of the Conservative back-bench Trade & Industry Committee: Michael Grylls, Tim Smith, and Neil Hamilton; Fayed's parliamentary consultant, Sir Peter Hordern; the chairman of the Conservative back-bench Finance Committee, Sir William Clerk; and Sir Andrew Bowden. It was planned that the party would fly out to Paris from Heathrow in Fayed's executive jet three weeks hence during the weekend of 25/26 April.
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9 April 1987: The new Secretary of State for Trade & Industry, Paul Channon, appoints two DTI Inspectors to investigate the Fayed brothers' acquisition of House of Fraser.
Channon appointed the Inspectors after concluding that Tiny Rowland's evidence of Fayed's fraud on the government was unassailable. This had been compiled by Tiny Rowland from scores of documents, plus articles from investigations conducted by the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Observer's City Desk.
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10 April 1987: Ian Greer cancels the trip to the Windsors' and the Ritz.
Mindful of the increasing sensitivity and controversy, Ian Greer wrote to the six MPs and postponed the visit until after the inspectors had published their report.
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8 September 1987: Neil & Christine Hamilton arrive at the Paris Ritz as personal guests of its owner, Mohamed
'Al' Fayed
Neil Hamilton claims he had accepted Fayed's invitation to stay at the Ritz only to augment an invitation for him and his wife to take a personal historical tour of the former Paris home of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor. Fayed had made the invitation himself a few weeks earlier upon being told by Hamilton that he and his wife planned a motoring holiday in France. Accordingly whilst on their motoring holiday the couple duly diverted to Paris and stayed at the hotel for six nights between 8-14 September. Hamilton claimed later that they stayed six nights because Fayed delayed the visit to the Windsors' villa.
The Hamiltons' financial records show that during the trip Neil Hamilton used his credit card to buy goods & services and to withdraw 1,500 French Francs from an ATM machine in Strasbourg. This lies at odds with a claim made by Mohamed Fayed's personal assistant Alison Bozek,
made for the first time over nine years later, that prior to his departure
Neil Hamilton had collected from her £3,500 spending money.
Neil Hamilton did not register his visit in the parliamentary Register of Members' Interests. Had he done so, it would have been the first registration of private hospitality by an MP since the register was instigated during the 1970s.
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1988
January-December 1988: Labour MPs cease activity re: House of
Fraser and Harrods. Conservative MP Teddy Taylor continues tabling questions supportive of Lonrho. Conservative MPs Tim Smith and Neil Hamilton continue tabling questions unhelpful to Lonrho.
The identified Parliamentary activity by all MPs during 1988 relating to House of Fraser, Lonrho, Tiny Rowland or Fayed, is:
Written Questions: Ron Brown, L (1); Bryan Gould, L (1); Neil Hamilton, C (2); John Marshall, C (1); Tim Smith, C (11); Teddy Taylor, C (8).
Oral Questions: Jeff Rooker, L (1)
Parliamentary Motions: Neil Hamilton, C (1)
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30 March 1988: A Labour member of the Members' Interests Committee, Bob Cryer MP, lambastes Conservative MP Tim Smith from the Floor of the
House of Commons for tabling 58 parliamentary questions for payment, in Smith's capacity as the registered parliamentary consultant to City accountants Price Waterhouse.
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23 July 1988: The DTI Inspectors deliver their explosive report on the Fayed brothers' takeover of House of Fraser to new Secretary of State for Trade, Lord Young of Graffham. Young refrains from publishing the report.
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1989
January-December 1989: The
Observer, plus Labour Opposition MPs and a few Conservative MPs, call on the Government to publish the DTI Inspectors' report.
The identified Parliamentary activity by all MPs during 1989 relating to House of Fraser, Lonrho, Tiny Rowland or Fayed, is:
Written Questions: Dale Campbell-Savours, L (11)**; Tam Dalyell, L (2); Bryan Gould, L (1); Neil Hamilton, C (4); Charles Kennedy, Lib (1); Jeff Rooker, L (3); Dennis Skinner, L (1); Teddy Taylor, C (13); Jim Wallace, Lib (1).
Oral Questions: James Abuthnot, C (2); Jonathan Aitken, C (3); Stuart Bell, L (4); Gerald Bermingham, L (1); Dale Campbell-Savours, L (20); Sir Peter Emery, C (1); John Garrett, L (2); Sir Anthony Grant, C (2); Bryan Gould, L (10); Ian Gow, C (1); Doug Hoyle, L (2); Charles Kennedy, Lib (3); Neil Kinnock, L (1); Ivan Lawrence, C (2); Chris Mullin, L (3); Richard Page, C (2); Jeff Rooker, L (9); Tim Smith, C (2); Brian Sedgemore, L (2); Teddy Taylor, C (3); Peter Thurnham, C (1).
Parliamentary Motions: Dale Campbell-Savours, L (46)**; Neil Hamilton, C (1); Brian Sedgemore, L (1); Tim Smith, C (1).
Points of Order: Dale Campbell-Savours, L (4)**.
**Note: During 1989 Labour MP Dale Campbell-Savours switches sides to begin a vitriolic campaign attacking his former ally, Tiny Rowland, over alleged interference in the editorship of the Observer -- though under Rowland's stewardship the Observer had remained fervently anti-Conservative and a rich source for Campbell-Savours' and his Labour colleagues' campaigns against the government. Campbell-Savours' about turn had been prompted by his being enrolled by the Guardian to conduct a covert parliamentary campaign to denigrate Tiny Rowland as an unfit newspaper proprietor and Lonrho as an unfit newspaper owner, in order to force the Lonrho board into selling the paper over Tiny Rowland's head, whereupon the Guardian planned to acquire for itself the Sunday paper that it had always lacked. The evidence shows that Campbell-Savours was enrolled some time within a three day period 20 March-23 March 1989.
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