Peter Hain

Peter Hain

This article is part of the Revolving Door project of Spinwatch.

Peter Hain is a British Labour Party politician and former cabinet minister. He stood down as the MP for Neath at the next general election in 2015 and was replaced by Christina Rees who held the seat by 9,548 votes.

Hain was awarded a peerage in the House of Lords in July 2015.

Background

Peter Hain was born in Kenya and brought up in South Africa. He is described as having 'won fame in the Seventies for his campaigning against apartheid. So furious was the South African Secret Service about his activities that they even tried to frame him for a bank robbery in Putney in 1975, a bid that failed spectacularly when he was cleared at the Old Bailey'. Hain was a member of the Liberal Party until 1977 when he changed to Labour. The Express states that he 'has never been entirely trusted in his new political home. Admiration for his stance on South Africa has been mixed with suspicion about his intense ambition'. The report continues that in 'the Eighties, he was a noisy Left-winger, only to become a keen Blairite in the late Nineties, for which he has been rewarded with a string of Government posts'.

Hain was elected MP for Neath in 1991. He is described as a 'former Euro-sceptic' who went on to become Tony Blair's Europe minister. He is reported to have 'helped ease Stephen Byers out of his job as Transport Secretary when he told a magazine that Britain had the worst railways in Europe' (2002) and is suspected of leaking government documents to the media about considered plans to restore "stop under suspicion powers" to the police (2007). It is claimed that he was one of the first to publicly denounce the plans.

In 2006, Hain undertook a campaign to win the 'Labour deputy leadership race'. When this failed (he came 5th), Gordon Brown promoted him to Work and Pensions. In doing so it is reported that Brown calculated 'that Mr Hain's well-cultivated image as a Left-winger might make it easier for him to sell tough welfare reform plans' and that Brown banked 'on the minister's adaptability in accepting the new agenda'. Daily Express columnist Leo McKinstry describes the 'conceit and hypocrisy of Peter Hain' as 'breathtaking'.

Mystery donations

A hitherto unknown thinktank that passed tens of thousands of pounds to Peter Hain's deputy leadership campaign has never published any work or held any meetings since its incorporation in December 2006. Concerns over the exact role of the Progressive Policies Forum mounted yesterday and threatened to undermine efforts by the work and pensions secretary to clear his name and explain how he and his team had failed to register more than £100,000 in donations to the Electoral Commission.

The Progressive Policy Forum was set up by John Underwood (former director of communications for the Labour Party, founder of Clear Communications, Business Development Director of Freshwater UK and former head of public relations for Neil Kinnock) in 2006, three month after the launch of Hain's campaign. Underwood is also reported to have been responsible for running Hain's deputy leadership campaign 'in its early stages'. The PPF channelled over £50,000 in donations and loans to Peter Hain's deputy leadership campaign. This included almost £15,000 from Isaac Kaye and a £5,000 donation and £25,000 loan from Willie Nagel (a diamond broker who was once a Conservative supporter). It is claimed that Nagel did not know that his donation and loan had gone to Hain. Nagel and Hain have had connections in the past when Nagel acted as 'the contact person between diamond dealers and Peter Hain' when Hain was 'Britain's Foreign Office Minister for Africa'. Nagel was recruited by Hain to set up the 'Kimberly Process to clean up the gem trade after the African "blood diamond" scandals'.

In 2008, Shipton of the Western Mail asked Hain to explain why the Progressive Policies Forum 'had apparently passed money donated to it across to his campaign very quickly after receiving it'. Hain did not give a direct answer to the question, instead he insisted that he had been open about his failure to report the money. It is claimed that the PPF 'was used to channel money from donors who did not want their names publicised'. According to the Mail on Sunday, Both Kaye and Nagel 'had been asked to give money directly - and initially refused because they were told they could not remain anonymous'.

As Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price states in the Western Mail, 'It is appalling that Peter Hain has accepted donations from a man whose company is facing criminal charges for allegedly defrauding the NHS ... It is inconceivable that Peter Hain was unaware that this issue, which has been widely reported in the media, was going to trial'. Isaac Kaye's firm Norton Healthcare is awaiting trial in relation to allegations of a suspected conspiracy to defraud the NHS. Kaye was also a supported of the South Africa's Apartheid regime.

In September 2006, Hain used a Fabian Society fringe meeting at the TUC conference in Brighton to announce he will be a candidate for Labour's deputy leadership.

One of the events where donations were secured was a fundraising dinner at the Park House Club in Cardiff, which was organised by Huw Roberts.

In December 2007, Hain first admitted to having failed to disclose a £5,000 donation on the Commons Register of MPs' Interests and to the Electoral Commission. 'Days later, the number of undeclared donations had soared to 17, totalling pounds 103,000'. The Western Mail reports that Hain admitted that he had failed to register a £5,000 donation to his campaign from Labour fundraiser Jon Mendelsohn in November 2007.

According to Settle, 'One source close to the Hain campaign told The Herald last night: "It was very shambolic and was not a campaign that merited anything like what was eventually spent. Where did all the money go? Where is the money?". It is reported that the total amount spent on the campaign was in excess of £180,000.

In regard to the PPF think tank, the Times is quoted as stating that

'it is now obvious that the sole purpose of this organisation was to provide ideas and policies that one contender for the deputy leadership, Mr Hain, might benefit from, yet the names of those who had bankrolled the enterprise would have remained secret. As events transpired, when the inept Hain campaign discovered that it had severely overspent its budget in its drive to capture fifth place in this election it instead turned to the dormant thinktank as a private piggy bank'.

Underwood responded to critics of the inactivity of the PPF by saying that the PPF 'has not been involved in new policy initiatives because its resources were put behind Peter Hain's deputy leadership campaign'.

The Guardian reports that Underwood argued in 2006, 'that a new leftwing thinktank was necessary to fill a gap formed by the closure of another thinktank, Catalyst'. Hain and 'others' are reported to have 'urged Underwood not to go ahead, since they feared such a thinktank would be trawling for donations from the same sources Hain was exploring to finance his campaign'.

According to the Mail on Sunday 'Hain felt let down when respected Left-wing think-tank Compass switched its support to deputy leadership rival John Cruddas. Mr Underwood's own obscurethink-tank, Catalyst, had merged with Compass. The aide said: 'We were discussing what to do when someone said, "Why don't we set up our own think-tank to promote Peter?" John was really excited about the idea'.

The Mail on Sunday continues by reporting that there was then a lot of argument, however Steve Morgan (Hain's campaign manager) was for the idea. Morgan had taken over the campaign management from Phil Taylor and the two were reported as having argued over the nature of the campaign as Morgan wanted to 'use glitzy US-style campaigning techniques' and promote Hain 'as the man who ended apartheid.'

The Mail on Sunday investigation claims to have uncovered allegations that 'Hain was warned a year ago against using the PPF as a vehicle to raise cash for his challenge' and that the 'identity of his business backers was suppressed to avoid upsetting his union supporters'.

The Times reports (in January 2008) that other likely candidates for questioning by Scotland Yard in relation to the failure to declare the donations could include Phil Woolas (the junior minister who helped to run Mr Hain's campaign), Phil Taylor (Hain's former special adviser) and Steve Morgan (Hain's former campaign manager). Morgan is Chairman and Director of PR firm Morgan Allen Moore. Morgan claims to have donated £5,000 to the think-tank (PPF) but to have had no involvement in its fundraising. According to the Daily Mail this 'fuels speculation that the decision to use the PPF for donations was taken by Mr Hain or Mr Under-wood'.

The Guardian describes Phil Woolas as Hain's campaign chairman (he is also climate change minister), who 'was not aware that the campaign had raised or spent £103,000 on top of the £82,000 which he and Hain formally reported to Labour in the summer'. Wollas 'is understood to be bemused about where this extra spending went'.

A separate investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner John Lyon (into complaints that £103,000 had not been entered into the Commons Register of Members' Interest), has been suspended while the police investigate and may be continued once the outcome of the Police inquiry is known.

It has been repeatedly stated that the failure to declare the funds was due to an 'innocent mistake'. However this means that there were 17 of these so called 'mistakes' and as McKinstry states, by Hain's 'own admission this was a clear breach of the rules on party funding, yet Hain has the gall to pre-tend that it was only a minor administrative oversight'. As McKinstry goes on to point out, 'Hain's department is running a campaign against social security abuses, warning that action will be taken against "people who withhold information or fail to report a change of circumstances". But that is precisely what the boss has done'. Hain's explaination as to the 'mistake'... he was 'too busy with his work as a minister to perform the task'. McKinstry sums up...

No magistrate would allow a fraudster to walk free from court on the grounds that he was "too busy" to state his income correctly. And if Hain is really as hopeless at administration as he claims, then he is hardly the right figure to be running the Department with the largest budget in Whitehall'.

Quid Pro Quo and other funders

Other funders of Hain's campaign include Mike Cuddy, head of Welsh contracting firm the Cuddy Group. Cuddy gave Hain £10,000 for his campaign four months after Hain's visit to the company where he presented Cuddy with a health and safety award and endorsed the company's work. The Cuddy Group 'has strenuously denied any link between the donation and Hain's commendation of it' . The donation from Cuddy was one the the donations which Hain failed to declare.

Hain also received £5,000 from Neville Allport founder of cheap loans firm Picture Financial, after Hain praised the firm's record.

Christopher Campbell (aged 72) former chairman of British Shipbuilders, donated the sum of £1,990 to the PPF. The Sunday Times reports that Campbell 'believed he had been approached by Steve Morgan, Hain's campaign director, in June about giving funds to the PPF'. By early July, Campbell had been asked if the funds could be transferred to the Hain campaign.

Bill Bottriell, whom the Sunday Times describes as a 'millionaire entrepreneur' aged 50, donated £15,000 at the start of Hain's campaign, then a further £5,000. Bottriell is reported to have 'amassed his fortune from an online recruitment company' and to have 'once paid £1,700 for a guided tour of No10 Downing Street, auctioned by Cherie Blair to raise funds for her sons' school, the London Oratory'.

Patrick Head donated £2,000 to the Hain campaign. Head is reported to be a 'co-founder of the Williams Formula One team and technical director at Williams Grand Prix engineering for more than 25 years'. According to the Sunday Times, 'another of the company's co-founders, Frank Williams, is said to be close to Hain, who was taken to the Italian Grand Prix by the team in 1999'.

Other donations to the Hain campaign which were not declared as they should have been include...

• TM Communications - donated £1,500
• David Goldstone - £5,000
• Robert Davies - £5,000
• the construction workers' union UCATT - 2,500
• Ronnie Harris - £5,000
• the GMB union - £10,000 and £4,197
• HRA Ltd - £1,346

U-turn after donations received

Hain is reported to have received (in 2007) '£10,000 from a union less than a month before making a surprise U-turn on job cuts. He backtracked on shutting dozens of Remploy factories after the GMB donated the money to his campaign'. The GMB deny attempting to influence him.

Refering to the business donors of Hains failed campaign, The Independent argues that

'business people contribute to politicians' expenses usually in the expectation of the favour being recognised at a later date. They don't generally do it because of a lifelong attachment to certain political principles. Their donations are often speculative investments with the hope of a return. That is the problem which the politician must eventually face - what dividend is expected on the funds received?'

The Independent goes on to add that

'When business people provide funding for a politician or a political party, they ask for anonymity, not be-cause they believe in doing good by stealth but because publicity is likely to ruin the implicit bargain. As soon as a link is disclosed, the politician simply cannot provide the reward. At the very least it is embarrassing and at the worst it may invite corruption charges. If there is publicity, the donation is wasted'.

...and so, claims the Independent, The Progressive Policies Forum was created.

Motivated by self-advancement

In regards to Hain, The Daily Telegraph reports that there has been 'suspicion among many colleagues that he is willing to put personal gain ahead of either party loyalty or political principle'. The report continues by stating that 'critics on both Left and Right say he is motivated mainly by self-advancement'.

The Express describes him as a 'workaholic apparatchik' who is 'renowned for his ambition' and who has for 'almost a decade he has been obsessed with the idea of becoming Labour's deputy leader'.

The Guardian reminds us that 'Everyone at the top level in politics is highly ambitious. It's just that Hain is rubbish at hiding it'.

Supporting Tesco

In November 2007, Hain took part in a photo PR exercise at the newly-opened Tesco store in Maesteg. Tesco is a client of Steve Morgan's PR firm Morgan Allen Moore. Hain praised Tesco for backing the Government's 'local employment partnerships scheme' and referred to the opening of Tesco stores throughout Britain as a 'win-win' situation. However, the store in Maesteg was built in the face of opposition from locals who claim that it could wreck smaller shops' livelihoods.

Faked RSPCA emails

Hain was reportedly the object of a smear campaign using faked emails that pruported to show his deputy leadership campaign using RSPCA facilities.

Affiliations

• Amara Mining, Hain is a non-executive director, earning £31,500 a year for 12 days work in 2012-13
• It is not only John Underwood who has connections to Freshwater UK, as Hain appeared as a guest of honour at Freshwater's table at a Labour fund-raising dinner and publicly praised Freshwater as a "modern, dynamic company" that he wanted to see go "from strength to strength". He is reported to have "absolutely no regrets" over his links to the company.
• Partner, HaywoodHain LLP (his wife's consultancy), June 2008-July 2009. Approved by ACOBA who "saw no difficulty" with Hain taking up the role.
• Adviser, Renaissance Structures Ltd, January 2009. Approved by ACOBA who "saw no difficulty" with Hain taking up the role.
• Progressive Policies Forum, a little known think tank, which in 2009 was found to have been used to channel more than £50,000 to Hain's deputy leadership contest campaign.

• Developing Market Associates
• Anti-Nazi League

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

Email: peter.hain.mp@parliament.uk

House of Commons

London SW1 A 0AA

Tel: 0207 219 3925/3632 or 01639 630152

Website www.peterhain.org

External Resources

• Patrick Wintour, Peter Hain meets police over hacking allegations, guardian.co.uk, 30 November 2011.