THE SNP was accused last night of a "politically motivated" smear campaign against Wendy Alexander after a confidential committee report about the Scottish Labour leader was leaked to the press.
Jim Dyer, the Standards Commissioner, has prepared a report into the donations Ms Alexander received for her leadership campaign last year.
It is understood that Dr Dyer concluded that Ms Alexander broke parliamentary rules by not declaring the £1
6,000 for her campaign as "gifts" in the register of members' interests.
Ms Alexander did not declare the money because she had sought legal advice from the clerks to the standards committee and had been told she did not need to do so.
Details of Dr Dyer's report appeared in the press over the weekend – even though it has not yet been given to members of the committee.
The only people to have seen the report were the clerks to the committee, Ms Alexander herself and Keith Brown, the SNP MSP who chairs the committee.
Senior Labour sources made it clear yesterday that they believed the leak had come from the SNP.
A Labour spokesman said: "This smacks of politics pure and simple, and it fits a pattern of the SNP's smear campaign against Wendy Alexander.
"There has been a raft of complaints against Ms Alexander to the Standards Commissioner, all from SNP activists. It is politically motivated abuse of the procedure."
In February, Ms Alexander revealed the details of ten supporters who each gave just under £1,000 to her successful leadership campaign last summer.
Mr Brown said that his role on the committee prevented him from making comments about any report into any complaint against Ms Alexander.
But an SNP spokesman said: "We are simply not aware of the conclusions of Dr Dyer's report, and will have to wait and see."
He added: "The only speculation on its content appears to be from Wendy Alexander's own spokesperson, and that may well be ill-advised."
Dr Dyer's report will go to committee members during the next few days and the committee will discuss the report in the next month, before deciding on a course of action.
The committee could recommend that Ms Alexander is suspended from the parliament but, given the initial legal advice which she received, telling her not to declare the donations, that extreme sort of punishment is very unlikely.
Instead, Ms Alexander is likely to be the subject of mild censure by the committee, bringing to an end more than six months of controversy over her leadership campaign and the donations she received.
BACKGROUNDWENDY Alexander faced a series of investigations over money raised for her Scottish Labour leadership campaign last year. The Electoral Commission looked into an illegal £950 donation from Jersey-based businessman Paul Green. The commission decided to rebuke Ms Alexander for not checking properly on the legality of the donation but in effect cleared her of any wrong-doing.
Jim Dyer, the Standards Commissioner, concluded earlier this year that Ms Alexander should have declared the donations as "gifts" and his report will now go to the Holyrood Standards Committee.
The full article contains 524 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
