'Cash-for-questions affair' hits Britain, three peers caught

Britain's lobbying scandal got murkier today as it claimed the scalp of three peers after they were secretly filmed by reporters offering to ask parliamentary questions, lobby ministers and host events on the House of Lords terrace for money.
Labour suspended Lord Jack Cunningham, the former Cabinet minister, and Lord Brian Mackenzie of Framwellgate, the former police chief.
Lord John Laird resigned the Ulster Unionist whip and has also referred himself to the House of Lords sleaze watchdog.
Undercover 'Sunday Times' reporters, posing as a South Korean solar energy company, filmed Lord Cunningham, Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate and Lord Laird as they revealed their readiness to wield their influence in the halls of power to paying clients, escalating what is being referred to as a cash-for-questions row.

However, Ulster Unionist Lord Laird, Labour's Lord Mackenzie and Lord Cunningham all deny wrongdoing.
Lord Laird was also filmed by BBC discussing a regular payment to ask parliamentary questions.

He has since resigned from the Ulster Unionist party, pending a review into the allegations.
The fresh claims over political lobbying came after MP Patrick Mercer resigned as a Conservative party whip on Friday after claims by the BBC's Panorama programme that he broke Parliament's lobbying rules.
Mercer is alleged to have taken money from a fake firm professing to work for the government of Fiji. In Parliament, he subsequently asked questions about Fiji.

The House of Lords code of conduct says peers cannot engage in "paid advocacy", using their access to Parliament to make a profit.
The 'Sunday Times' report suggests the three peers, who it filmed separately, may have broken those rules.
Lord Cunningham, a privy counsellor who led the joint committee on Lords reform under Tony Blair, offered to write to Prime Minister David Cameron to push the solar energy company's supposed agenda.
He asked for a fee totalling 144,000 pounds a year to provide a personal lobbying service.
"Are you suggesting 10,000 pounds a month?" he asked.
"Make that....12,000 a month. I think we could do a deal on that," Lord Cunningham was quoted by the paper as saying.