Minister accused of treating the public with contempt after he avoids peers questions over HSBC money laundering

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Minister accused of treating the public with contempt after he avoids peers questions over HSBC money laundering

July 24th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Tim Shipman

PUBLISHED:

19:31 EST, 23 July 2012

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UPDATED:

19:31 EST, 23 July 2012

Trade minister Lord Green was accused of treating the public and Parliament with contempt yesterday after he refused to face questions on what he knew about money laundering at HSBC.

The former chairman and chief executive was in charge when Britain’s biggest bank ran accounts laundering money for Mexican drug barons and even Al Qaeda associates.

Rogue states such as Syria also funnelled cash through the bank. The wrongdoing has been exposed by a US Senate inquiry.

AWOL: Trade minister Lord Green failed to turn up for an urgent question in the House of Lords yesterday, infuriating MPs

However, when an urgent question was granted in the House of Lords yesterday – effectively summoning Lord Green to the despatch box – he failed to turn up.

The businessman has spoken only five times in the Lords since he was given a ministerial post two years ago. He is also an adviser on banking to Chancellor George Osborne.

Critics argue that he is happy to jet around the world at taxpayers’ expense but is unwilling to open himself to the kind of accountability expected of normal politicians.

But Lord Strathclyde, leader of the Lords, answered questions on his behalf and said Lord Green had not appeared because ‘no minister needs to be accountable to Parliament for his previous career, only for what they are doing as ministers’.

Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the Lords, was forced to answer on Lord Green's behalf

Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the Lords, was forced to answer on Lord Green’s behalf

Further concerns were raised yesterday when it emerged that Lord Green met senior figures from HSBC for dinner on January 9 this year.

Details of the talks are not known, but the meeting took place around the time the US Senate investigation was beginning.

Labour’s leader in the Lords, Baroness Royall, demanded that Lord Green ‘place on record what he knew and when about the matters investigated by the US Senate committee including what steps he took to deal with them’.

Labour MP John Mann has called for his resignation, and even officials in the Department for Business are privately concerned at his refusal to face questions.

One said: ‘It looks awful and we are left having to say he has nothing to say. It is just arrogant. He thinks he is above scrutiny.’

Labour Treasury spokesman Chris Leslie said: ‘With his repeated refusals to answer questions about what he knew and when, Lord Green is treating Parliament and the public with contempt.’