Allegation Alun Cairns broke code not upheld
A Cabinet Office investigation into Tory MP Alun Cairns, who quit the Cabinet during the election campaign, has not upheld allegations of a breach of the ministerial code.
The former Welsh secretary announced he was standing down from the Cabinet last month over his links to a Conservative candidate accused of sabotaging a rape trial.
The report, published yesterday, found it “unlikely” that the MP was not told anything about his former staff member’s role, but concluded that the evidence did not support the allegations of a breach.
He is thought to have been the first Cabinet minister in modern times to have quit during the course of a general election campaign. Mr Cairns claimed he was unaware of the role played by Ross England in the collapse of a rape trial until after the story broke.
However, he was accused of “brazenly lying” after BBC Wales said it had obtained a leaked email which suggested he had been made aware of the allegations as early as
August last year. Mr Cairns said he would “co-operate in full” with an investigation into his actions under the Ministerial Code.
The report by Sir Alex Allan, the Prime Minister’s independent adviser on ministers’ interests, stated that Mr Cairns said he knew about the collapse of the trial, but that he did not know the details until they become public.
Sir Alex said the issue was whether it was “plausible that Mr Cairns could have been told about the collapse of the trial without inquiring or being told about the reasons, especially given that he knew Mr England was a witness”.