Jon Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, said:
“After his car-crash interview, the unanswered questions for Grant Shapps are growing.
“Mr Shapps’s constituent has now initiated legal action against the Tory Party Chairman.
“New revelations seem to emerge every day and these are allegations Grant Shapps cannot escape.
“If he is to stay in post, Grant Shapps must now tell us why he threatened a constituent with legal action based on a falsehood, why he covered up his second job for so long and whether he or the Conservative Party paid for his constituent to be bullied.
“David Cameron has so far looked the other way at serious allegations against Grant Shapps, but this taints the whole Tory Party, who always stand up for the wrong people.”
Transcript of Grant Shapps on BBC World at One:
MARTHA KEARNEY:
Of course Grant Shapps, you got into trouble recently by saying on LBC that you didn’t have a second job when you were an MP, when in fact you did, which you described as a ‘screw-up’?
GRANT SHAPPS:
Yeah, well this was seven, eight, nine, ten years ago so I just…just…got a date wrong and of course I registered it all properly at the time so it was there for everyone to see.
MARTHA KEARNEY:
But it’s surprising you got it wrong because in fact, you know, this is in the register of member’s interests for a long period of time. This must have been a period of your life that you pored over because it was so controversial because you were using the pseudonym Michael Green…
GRANT SHAPPS:
…Just to be clear, I mean, on the same basis that a lot of MPs…anyone who writes a book basically…it wasn’t a job like going somewhere 9-5 or something. Anyone who writes a book including frontbenchers on the Labour side, like Tristram Hunt, who writes books and lectures and…all those people would have second jobs. But just to go to the actual point…
MARTHA KEARNEY:
But you did mislead people in your interview, didn’t you, at LBC?
GRANT SHAPPS:
I got the date wrong. And…because I did I freely said I got the date wrong and…
MARTHA KEARNEY:
But it wasn’t like a little date. It’s because you had carried on doing this for three years…
GRANT SHAPPS:
…but I wasn’t doing very much in that time, I was writing a bit…
MARTHA KEARNEY:
But you were a director for three years…
GRANT SHAPPS:
And I put it down in the members’ register because it…just…you know, it was there for all to see…and we’re now seven years…
MARTHA KEARNEY:
Does seem an odd thing to forget though?
GRANT SHAPPS:
In terms of your life if you think back seven, ten years and you know you will find that you just misremember a date but I’ve been totally clear about it, I misremembered the date…
[talking over]
MARY CREAGH:
…Are you going to apologise to your constituent, was that him who was actually waiting outside the offices today?
GRANT SHAPPS:
Look I know Labour has been busy sowing stuff…I know you set up a stunt outside Milbank today. The truth is I know Labour don’t like anybody…
MARY CREAGH:
You threatened to sue him and sent him a legal letter…
GRANT SHAPPS:
Just to be clear…
MARY CREAGH:
…for something that you now say you “over-firmly denied”?
GRANT SHAPPS:
No, no, that’s incorrect, Mary. I sent him a letter because what he wrote was in fact wrong and defamatory. What he then, what he then…
MARY CREAGH:
Did you not write a book called ‘Stinkin’ Rich 3’?
GRANT SHAPPS:
That wasn’t the issue. The issue was he said I hadn’t registered it and I had.
MARTHA KEARNEY:
And the lawyers’ letter in fact that you sent out to him did say that you wanted him to make clear that you used a pen name merely to separate business and politics, prior to entering parliament. So Labour got it wrong?
GRANT SHAPPS:
Yep. The prior bit…
MARTHA KEARNEY:
…so you misremembered on LBC but your lawyer got it wrong as well?
GRANT SHAPPS:
Just to be clear here, this whole discussion is about something that I have already said, that I got the date wrong, it was in my Members’ Register, so I never tried to say, you know…at the time I registered it properly. So…fine…I got the date wrong …
MARTHA KEARNEY:
But your lawyer got it wrong as well?
GRANT SHAPPS:
Because we got the date wrong. I mean it has already been said. But look, I know Labour have got their entire research department on this. They don’t want to talk about the issues, they don’t like anybody who has been in business before. A lot of the Labour side, including their leadership, haven’t done anything outside politics. Most people listening to us who’ve been in business, who understand that creating jobs and wealth actually requires people who have had some experience of the world outside of politics will be saying we don’t want professional politicians who have done nothing else with their lives. I agree with the comments of Simon and Angus that, actually, to be an MP is a privilege, the salary is £67,000-whatever-it-is is sufficient because that is something that you are doing for public service, you don’t come into politics for … to do it for the money. And I don’t support increases in the salary for that reason. By the way…
MARTHA KEARNEY:
I just want to bring in Simon Hughes ….
GRANT SHAPPS:
… Just one point because it picks up on something Mary mentioned. When we came in, most people won’t be familiar with this, this government froze ministerial salaries for five years and did a 5 per cent pay cut over the entire period as well. So actually, I agree with the broader point which is you come into politics to do public service, I don’t think there is anything wrong with having had been in business before that.
BBC Radio 4, The World At One. Wednesday 25 March 2015
Ends