A VETERAN MP has called for an investigation into revelations John Major's Government used claims of nepotism and religious bias against a council as political ammunition, despite knowing they were baseless.

Tom Clarke, Labour MP for Coatbridge and Chryston, said he may ask a House of Commons committee to investigate after The Herald reported on the Monklands District Council affair.

Previously secret Scotland Office files showed the then Tory Scottish Secretary was advised not to hold a public inquiry into the council, as there was no evidence of wrongdoing and "very little prospect" of it achieving anything.

However, Ian Lang set one up regardless – at a cost of £106,000 – and Mr Major continued to use the Monklands affair to bait Labour over sleaze in the House of Commons.

Mr Clarke, a former Monklands District provost, who was Monklands West MP during the affair, said an investigation was required.

He said: "In the circumstances, I am considering asking the House of Commons Standards and Privileges Committee to look into this matter."

The Monklands scandal erupted in the early 1990s.

The Labour-run council, which later became North Lanarkshire Council, was accused of cronyism in hiring staff and letting contracts, and of skewing public funds towards largely Catholic Coatbridge at the expense of Airdrie, with a larger Protestant population. The council commissioned Professor Robert Black, QC, to report on the claims, expecting to be cleared.

Mr Black's 1995 report concluded many of the allegations had merit, and there was indeed a spending bias in favour of Coatbridge.

However, when Mr Lang asked his officials about holding an inquiry, they told him the Black report was flawed and lacked prima facie evidence.

"Our recommendation is against the holding of [an] inquiry," they told him in a five-page memo.

Going against their advice, Mr Lang set up a lengthy inquiry under William Nimmo-Smith, QC, later the judge Lord Nimmo-Smith, who reached the same conclusion as the officials.