Cherie Blair. Photograph: AP
My cynicism antennae were twitching when I saw today's Telegraph splash: Cherie may face inquiry for 'cashing in' on name. It's the old story (from June 2 in fact) about Mrs Blair getting paid for a speech in the US; the Tories complained at the time that she was exploiting her position (as the prime minister's wife) for financial gain. So why is the Telegraph wheeling it out again? Slow news day, time for some Cherie-baiting? Opportunistic announcements from the Tories calculated to appeal to a Telegraph slow news day? Possibly, but it would be unfair to the Telegraph to dismiss what is on reflection a very interesting story.
The spur for the story is a letter from Sir Alistair Graham, chair of the committee on standards in public life, to Chris Grayling, shadow leader of the Commons, and unofficially i/c Cherie-baiting for the Tories. Mr Grayling asked Sir Alistair to look into Mrs Blair's earnings for public appearances, and Sir Alistair's letter in response yesterday broadly found there was no case to answer. Sir Alastair's committee has no mandate to investigate individual cases, he pointed out, and further, its mandate is only to look at the conduct of holders of public office; Cherie holds none. You can read the letter in full here (Word) .
So far, so unpromising, but what the Telegraph hauls out is that Sir Alistair commits himself to pressing for further discussion of the ministerial code. Despite accepting that its most recent edition (pdf) explicitly says that conflict of interest for ministers includes their spouses or children (section 5.3), Sir Alistair has a dig at the government for not implementing his committee's proposal for an "independent adviser on ministerial interests" - to wit, a watchdog which would have a mandate to investigate Mrs Blair. Sir Alistair goes on to say that he will be pressing for this in his next inquiry. Sir Alistair has a laudable track record for attacking what he sees as underhand or unethical behaviour by the government, so it's true that we can expect to see this story back again when his committee completes its inquiry, whether or not Mrs Blair 'may' face a specific investigation.
Lastly, though, it's interesting that the new ministerial code, published last month with a foreword by the Rt Hon Tony Blair, explicitly refers to conflict of interest with regards to ministers' spouses - precisely what the Tories were demanding it should do back in June; an instance, you might think, of the government quickly and honourably putting its house in order. No one noticed, though, because everyone leaped on the provisions relating to special advisers. That's politics for you.
