Hain exits
He jumped. He wasn't pushed. That is the word coming from Downing Street about Peter Hain. The decision was, we're told, his own in response to the decision of the Electoral Commission to call in the police to investigate the former minister's failure to comply with the electoral law.
Mr Hain always insisted that once he'd discovered the accounts for his Deputy leadership campaign were in disarray he'd admitted it and ensured that everything was revealed - albeit late - to the Electoral Commission. This account has two problems.
Firstly, it reveals that he did not take his legal duty to produce accurate accounts seriously. Secondly, the accounts he did produce revealed the existence of a mystery think tank which had been used to channel donations to Mr Hain's campaign. He never agreed to answer any questions about this or to give an account as to why this arrangement had been set up.
Mr Hain's resignation is a reminder that there is an ongoing police investigation into the Labour Party's use of proxy donations and Electoral Commission enquiries into the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Wendy Alexander (for taking a foreign donation) and Labour's Deputy leader Harriet Harman (for taking a proxy donation).
I'm 
Comments
Nick - don't take Downing Street's word for it! You're a journalist, analyse it yourself - Brown said Hain's future would be decided by the Electoral Commission's findings. It's clear he lost Brown's support because the police are now involved. Of course he was pushed, the man showed a willingness to cling onto power only surpassed by Mandelson!
I wonder what the mood and the mentality is in Brown's bunker right now. Will Hain's departure precipitate a house of cards amongst the others implicated in "donorgate"?
Is Hain's the first political scalp to be claimed by a blogger?
Guido (www.order-order.com)
take a bow for some excellent investigative journalism on this story.
Nick,
At least he did jump. I was coming to believe, on the basis of much evidence since the mid-1990s, that resignation was somehow held to be dishonourable!
For years, New Labour has passed some very bad, poorly thought out and overly complex laws. Little thought seems to have been given to those affected by these shoddy bits of legislation.
So I find it tremendously refreshing to see the "pigeons coming home to roost" as the govt is now a victim of its own legislation. It's about time.
By the way Nick - you didn't mention why it was so important for Hain to resign. If Brown had to sack him for donation irregularities then Harmin and Alexander would have to go as well.....
Lucky for Brown that Hain resigned!
Peter Hain is a fine man and an excellent politician. His departure is a great loss to the government.
Yet another victim of ridiculous political correctness.
Work and Pensions Secretaries are easy to replace but as for Welsh secretary, there are now no Welsh MPs left in cabinet are there? An opportunity for another departmental reorganisation and creation of a Secretary of State for Devolution perhaps?
Seemed inevitable. I am pretty certain that Peter Hain is an honest man, but I am equally certain he is an arrogant one who considers himself above all these petty rules. As has New Labour from Day One.
So Nick, are you going to give credit where credit is due and say that Guido Fawkes blog is mostly responsible for Hain's demise?
Or will you try and imply that it's all pressure from mainstream media ?
I'll be surpised if you even publish this comment!
The first to go but not the last.
The National accounts are in disarray, not just Peter Hain's. Who will pay the price for this?
Best news so far this year
Gordon Brown has again shown huge ineptitude in not sacking Peter Hain the moment he called his Deputy Leadership campaign incompetent.
He has squandered a chance to turn this round to his advantage by 'claiming to be ' pro-active.
The sooner the whole Government goes the better.
My God! I'm amazed that the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is actually reporting this story!?!
You do know it paints the Labour party in a bad light, don't you?
Regardless of where the money comes from, I can see no reason for individual politicians operating within a party to require or receive donations. What possible justification can there be for spending nearly £200,000 of other people's money on influencing members of one's own party?
This sort of issue will continue until the donation process is at arms length from political parties. All donations should be paid through an independent organisation such as the Electoral Commission, who would be responsible for making enquiries about legality; names of donors would not be passed on to the parties so there would be no question of buying favours.
Much like the modern batsman who waits before walking, Peter Hain refused to walk, clinging on in the hope that the 3rd umpire, in this case the electoral commission would find in his favour. He must have known weeks ago he had been given a thick (w)edge. The support offered covertly by number 10 through spokesmen has protected the PM sonmewhat. However it renews the interest in Wendy Alexander and Harriet Harman, which of course GB does not want.
So what will be the basis of investgating Brown's babes? Is it that the sums involved in Mr Hain's campaign dwarf those of HH & WA? Or is it the principal of non disclosure? Or is it whether sums were collected after the election was over?.
It doesn't seem 10 years since a leaner fitter Peter Hain harangued Neil Hamilton over a payment of £667.00. I mean I know there is inflation but come on....£102'333 difference. So if Neil Hamilton does not have a sense of schadenfreude I certainly do.
All through this episode, Peter Hain's supporters have been in the media claiming that he is an honourable man. If he had been he would have resigned at the outset, for be having dishonourably in failing to abide by legislation that his own party enacted.
Can the trust of the people in politicians be dragged any lower?
The longer the parties and their officials, as well as MP's, drag out their obfuscation and evasion only finally to be forced into the inevitable then the worse it seems.
With this news hot on the heels of the decision that there was no reason to withhold the early draft of the WMD dossier and the EU constitution charade just continues the theme that our elected and citizen funded representatives and bureaucracy continually try to mislead and hide information with total contempt for the electorate
I just noticed that this was the very day that Leon Brittan and Peter Mandelson resigned. perhaps we should name it Titanic day, and with any luck the whole sorry edifice will start to sink beneath the waves and we can move to a system of election and governance that is more representative of the will of the people and more open and transparent towards them.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy!
Why do all these politicians need such vast amounts of money to fight a party election?. Seems Hain was a waste of money as he did not figure in the top few candidates.
Now the one we're all waiting for to resign is Gordon Brown
The first to go but not the last.
The National accounts are in disarray, not just Peter Hain's. Who will pay the price for this?
You're right he jumped. In the nick of time.
Always thought him arrogant. This just proves it.
He may have technically have jumped, but he waited and waited until he had no other option. This has been very poorly handled, Hain has appeared quite arrogant to me
Perhaps he can borrow Jonathon Aitken's sword of justice to fight his case.
How the mighty have fallen from founder of the anti apartheid movement and the anti nazi league to this squalid money related fiasco.
The first to go but not the last.
The National accounts are in disarray, not just Peter Hain's. Who will pay the price for this?
This is just another episode from the debacle that is Labour party funding. Unfortunately for Labour, I don't see the clouds clearing any time soon.
I guess when it Hains, it pours
For years, New Labour has passed some very bad, poorly thought out and overly complex laws. Little thought seems to have been given to those affected by these shoddy bits of legislation.
So I find it tremendously refreshing to see the "pigeons coming home to roost" as the govt is now a victim of its own legislation. It's about time.
By the way Nick - you didn't mention why it was so important for Hain to resign. If Brown had to sack him for donation irregularities then Harmin and Alexander would have to go as well.....
Lucky for Brown that Hain resigned!
Its good to get views from all those on the political spectrum, including an ex-chairman of the Young Conservatives. Thanks Nick.
It's about time.
Like the Tory government before them, this one seems to have become arrogant and rotten.
There is something to be said, I think, for limiting the time a party can be in office.
Peter Hain came to fame digging holes - in a cricket pitch - and he goes out for doing exactly the same thing, but this time he just kept digging his own hole, deeper and deeper.
Any ideas who will be appointed SOS for both posts?
Hain has had to resign because he failed to adhere to legisltation enacted by the Labour Government since 1997 - not that this Government has a monopoly on bad legislation: just think of the Dangerous Dogs Act. He was at best incompetent; if not that, then arrogant. Neither are good traits in a Minister.
But it is naive to think that he jumped. The PM made it abundantly clear that if the matter escalted in any way, Hain's position was untenable. He was pushed.
Of course Guido is not mentioned by the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú for his role in this story. Why would anyone at the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú want to remind us that a single blogger can be better at investigative journalism than they are? And, anyway, why would the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú want to bite the Government hand that feeds it?
I absolutely believe he was NOT pushed out by Gordon - that would mean Gordon had made a decision, which is clearly silly.
He was still pushed - but by the fact that the police were called in and even this brassed necked lot know that is untenable. He lost all credibility with his collegues and the media after that point.
Anyone seeing a moral compass with the initials GB on it, please hand it in at 10 Downing St London.
There will be no reward.
reminds me of a quote from Her Majesty The Queen " all governments come in with high expectations, and leave looking haggered". Source: TV Series about the Queen Christmas 2005
Looks like this one has become haggered...
The idea that Hain 'Jumped' is only correct inasmuch as if he had not done so he would have been 'pushed'. After all, the police have been called in to investigate a Minister of the Crown. Not a very salubrious position for any Government to be in.
I do hope they do a thorough investigative job and find out all about this 'mystery think tank' that seems to exist to act as Hain's personal 'fund tank' rather than conduct any bona fide research.
So,he's fallen on his cheque book then
I don't see why politicians ever feel the need to resign. It can't be "an issue of trust" because every poll I've ever seen shows that nobody trusts them anyway.
It's good to see from the posts to date that schadenfreude is just as popular as ever.
Nick,
Surely this government, under Blair and Brown must be the most investigated, the most unsincere, the most cavalier of all governments since day 1.
Haine, whether pushed or not has shown Harman and Alexander the way.
They should then be closely followed by Jackie Smith for her total disregard for all things reasonable and binding.
What makes these Labour ministers believe that they are all above the law and not accountable to correct behaviour.
Most genuine Labour MPs are trust worthy and do a god job. But as soon as they get promotion, all this goes out the window and their own arrogance sets them up for the fall.
I have never heard any Labour Minister speak without speaking down to the nation.
I would really like to know exactly what Dennis Skinner and the real Labour Mps think about this mess their own Ministers are getting their party into.
It's rather like Captain Pugwash being made to walk the plank by Cut-Throat Jake. You just know Tom the Cabin boy has hidden a dingy underneath and Master Brown is waiting to pull him out the water.
The tables will be turned then, wont they?
Andrew (Post 24)
Hain has been arrogant ever since he led the student protests against apartheid, (when he was a liberal)
You can fool some of the people all of the time, Justin, and all of the people some of the time.
Why would Downing Street even comment that he jumped rather than being pushed? Surely this shows an even more indecisive PM who, even when old Plod is investigating, doesn't even have the backbone to sack someone.
This goes beyond sleaze, this is pandemic ineptitude and lack of moral fibre from a man who claims to have some sort of weird compass.
It is a terrible reflection on this government that it has taken so long to reach this stage. Hain should have resigned as soon as the news was out. It is not just the "incompetence" but the manner of funding through a proxy. The many "real" Labour supporters must be groaning and feeling let down once again.
I suppose its only right that the Shadow chancellor George Osborne also resigns because of his alleged failure to declare £500,000 in donations.
Why not just ban all donations and get the tax payer to fund political parties, otherwise we will always have the potential for allegations of sleaze and corruption.
Jumped? Pushed? Far too charitable. It was the boat that finally sank.
Poor old Hain, all this fuss over raising cash to get the rubbish job of Deputy, when as seen, fat controller Prescott excelled in the post - that surely tells you something about the intellectual standard required for the job
Always wondered what happened when people like him resign, do we keep on paying his salary & expenses?
"Peter Hain is a fine man and an excellent politician. His departure is a great loss to the government.
Yet another victim of ridiculous political correctness." (01:43)
Justin - He's what now? A "victim" of political correctness? He's neither a victim nor anything to do with political correctness. He's fallen foul of laws enacted by his own party. What's so ridiculous about that?
Saying he was concentrating on his Cabinet role to the detriment of his campagin accounts is pathetic - this amounts to saying he couldn't be bothered complying with the law. In years past Labour eagerly jumped on Tory ministers caught in such trivial things as sex scandals, and these people ultimately resigned, as Ministers should if their characters are brought into question. Why, however, do Labour Ministers not do the same thing? John Prescott anyone?? Even with Hain's case, why did Labour try to deflect criticism onto George Osbourne - he actually followed the rules, declared it to the Electoral Commission, and sought the advice of the Commons Registrar about the Members' Interests Register. How does this bear any resemblance to Mr Hain's predicament?
Bottom line, if he can't be bothered to obey the law, why should we trust him with not one but two Cabinet jobs? We can't, and it's right that he has gone. Should have happened a long time ago.
In all this New Labour bashing (and I'm not their biggest fan) let us take a moment to think about the Tories and all that they put themselves through not all that long ago.
For those who are wishing for a complete change of government, please remember that a politician is a politician is a politician . . . be they Labour, Tory, Lib Dem etc . . .
Are there no labour supporters left? Every comment you publish seems dipped in venom towards the Government in general and Gordon Brown in particular.
Hain had to go but every Government that ever was loses members by the wayside. I remember Maudling, a charming, able moderate Tory who got careless about finance and went. No party is immune, except perhaps the Liberals who do not have the temptation rather than any particular virtue
Wanted,by hundreds of small struggling companies..Ex Minister who can find the odd £100,000 extra to forecast.
Nick,
Peter has lost by the trial by the Media however he hasn't been convicted of any illegel wrong doing.
Peter Hain is a very effective politician and I don't believe he is currupt in any sort of way which media commentators such as you're self has protrayed him as being.
Jesse Erlam
Hang on for another day, = another day's gold-plated pension day to put in the bank account.
This news has cheered me up. It will be the only time I will say, Thank You to Peter Hain
I guess after so many years in power you must lose touch with the realities of life like the price of a loaf of bread, finding an NHS Dentist, worrying about the gas & electricity bills and, I almost forgot, obeying the law.
Of course the Conservative's will have a convenient short memory on this but it happened to the Tory's with their sleaze and Labour sadly seem to be going the same sordid way.
It's a very good reason why no political party should be allowed more than two terms in office.