Officials to screen McLeish memoirs

Published on Saturday 21 February 2004 00:00

THE memoirs of former First Minister Henry McLeish are set to be screened by senior civil servants amid concerns that the book includes confidential information.

Excerpts of Scotland First are set to be serialised in a tabloid newspaper in the run-up to the opening of Scottish Labour Party conference next Friday in Inverness.

But Holyrood Permanent Secretary John Elvidge has now demanded a draft copy to verify that it doesn’t divulge any revelations damaging to the Scottish Executive.

If the book is found to contain anything deemed inappropriate, the Government could take legal action to force sections to be rewritten. Guidelines known as the Radcliffe Rules require former ministers to submit memoirs for scrutiny relating to national security, Europeans affairs, cabinet and civil service confidentiality but Mr McLeish has yet to receive Government approval for its publication.

The book is expected to be highly critical of senior Labour figures including First Minister Jack McConnell.

A source close to Mr McLeish said: "They’re obviously worried about the embarrassment factor, especially as Tony Blair will be present at the conference, and because they haven’t been able to get a hold of it and they don’t know how to react to its contents."

Mr McLeish resigned in 2001 after it emerged that he had wrongly claimed full rental costs on his Westminster account for his constituency offices in Glenrothes, Fife, while subletting the premises to six other organisations. He maintained the situation was a "muddle not a fiddle".

Scottish Conservative leader David McLetchie suggested Mr McLeish should have complied with the Radcliffe Rules.

He said: "Not being careful with the rules and regulations was what got him into trouble in the first place. One would have thought he would have learned a lesson by now.

"As a former Government minister and as an ex-First Minister, he should know better than to ignore rules and regulation and should set a better example."