Sir Malcolm Rifkind faces what might be described as a challenging day this week.
The former foreign secretary will chair a meeting of parliament’s intelligence and security committee on Tuesday. It is due to publish a report before parliament is dissolved on 30 March into privacy and security arising out of the leaks by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Once the great and the good of the committee, whose members include a former cabinet secretary and a marquis, have concluded their meeting, Rifkind will turn his attention to his Kensington constituency.
On Thursday evening he is due to appear at Kensington town hall, in the heart of one of Britain’s most affluent constituencies, for the annual general meeting of the Kensington, Chelsea and Fulham Conservatives.
Rifkind’s planned appearance at the AGM, which is due to be followed by the president of the association’s annual reception, shows why his position is more fraught than that of Jack Straw, who is also facing allegations about cash-for-access.
The former Labour foreign secretary, who says he was interested in lining up business for his post-parliamentary career, announced long ago that he is not contesting his Blackburn seat on 7 May.
Rifkind, on the other hand, fully intends to contest his Kensington seat more than 40 years after he was first elected to parliament as MP for Edinburgh Pentlands in February 1974.
But his plan – and his attendance at Thursday’s AGM – are in doubt. During what was described as a difficult meeting, the Conservative chief whip, Michael Gove, removed the Tory whip from Rifkind on Monday morning. This means that Rifkind is technically not a Conservative MP, raising the possibility that Greg Hands, the deputy chief whip who is MP for Chelsea and Fulham, may have to assume command of proceedings at the AGM and the president’s reception.
Gove told Rifkind, who made what were described as strong legal arguments during their meeting that he had broken no rules, that the party would hold a brief disciplinary investigation. If the inquiry finds against Rifkind, he will be unable to defend his seat as a Conservative candidate.
The party cannot wait for the investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson, triggered after Rifkind and Straw referred themselves, because she is unlikely to report until after the general election.
It is understood that No 10 was frustrated that Rifkind took a lawyerly approach to his talks with Gove and had to be persuaded that the whip had, at the very least, to be suspended while an investigation is carried out.
But there is some sympathy for Rifkind, who is widely admired for the devotion he shows his wife who has been in poor health for some years.
“Malcolm’s constituency won’t be in the slightest bit bothered,” one Tory said. “There will be a fuss and then he will sail home in the general election and say he has been cleared by his re-election.”
David Cameron is also haunted by the way in which Howard Flight was sacked by Michael Howard as shadow chief secretary – and then removed as Tory candidate in Arundel – on the eve of the 2005 general election after making unhelpful comments about spending.
The prime minister eventually gave Flight a peerage. If the disciplinary investigation finds against Rifkind, he too will be unable to contest his seat as a Conservative.
Senior Tories, on the other hand, believe the timing is very tricky for Rifkind. “David needs this like a hole in the head. I don’t see how Malcolm can survive,” another senior Tory said.
- This article was amended on 26 February 2015 to correct the date of the intelligence and security committee meeting.
