INVESTIGATION: By Paul Hutcheon and Scottish Political Editor Tom Gordon
The civil war inside the East Lothian Consituency Labour Party (ELCLP) has been brewing for more than four years, and Anne Moffat, a former nurse and Unison official, is its casus belli. Elected to Westminster in 2001, she has been dogged by controversy ever since.
In 2004, it emerged she had the highest travel expenses of any MP in Britain, racking up £40,000 in a year, more than double the costs claimed by the Labour MP in neighbouring Midlothian.
A year later, she sacked three of her staff at the time of the general election, dividing the local party. Moffat settled an employment dispute with one employee, John Russell, in 2006, on the eve of a potentially embarrassing tribunal.
In the wake of the SNP's election victory at Holyrood, she compared Alex Salmond, the first minister, to Hitler. "Proportional representation gave Germany Adolf Hitler and, in Scotland, to a lesser extent, the member for Banff and Buchan," she said in the House of Commons.
More explosively, the Sunday Herald can also reveal that senior local activists triggered a secret parliamentary investigation into Moffat last year after allegations were made about her expenses.
Among the allegations put to Sir Philip Mawer, the then parliamentary commissioner for standards, were that she allowed her brother, David, to live in her taxpayer-funded London flat while she lived elsewhere in the capital in 2003.
Mawer also investigated claims she had employed her son, Scott, with public money for "questionable" work, and explored allegations she had told staff to use parliamentary facilities to canvass for Labour MP Jim Sheridan on the eve of the 2005 general election.
The commissioner, who questioned Moffat and other witnesses, ended his probe after he said there was no "hard evidence" to prove the charges.
The war between Moffat and her local party came to a head in July last year, when she submitted herself to a routine "trigger ballot" to remain the party's candidate at the next general election. Such votes are usually a formality, and endorsements are all but automatic.
However, four of the six local branches in East Lothian declined to support her, with three voting for an open selection process which could have led to her being replaced by another candidate. Moffat was only saved by the intervention of trade union affiliates, including one in Fife, whose block votes outweighed the views of party activists.
Amid uproar from party members, Lesley Quinn, the then Scottish general secretary of the party, conducted an investigation into what she called "anomalies in the selection ballot".
She reported her findings to the UK Labour party's National Executive Committee, which noted her concern but upheld the result in favour of Moffat.
It is understood that Unison, which helped Moffat secure the East Lothian candidacy in 2001, applied pressure behind the scenes to keep her in place.
Local activists refused to accept Moffat as their candidate, however. In June this year, the ELCLP's executive committee passed a withering motion of no confidence in her.
It stated: "This Party is concerned at Anne Moffat's behaviour and attitude towards the CLP and the members of the Party since the trigger ballot result was announced She has made unfounded allegations of being bullied and harassed by Party members and has made damaging statements to the media We believe our MP's conduct and statements have brought the Party into disrepute."
The motion called on Moffat to submit to a vote of confidence by local members.
On September 25, the same motion was debated by the ELCLP's "general committee", the ultimate decision-making body in the constituency. Aware of the impending vote, Colin Smyth, Quinn's successor as general secretary, wrote a furious warning letter to the ELCLP's chairman, councillor Willie Innes.
Smyth said that because "the motion is unconstitutional, it should not have been agreed by the Executive Committee and should not be discussed by the Constituency Labour Party General Committee". Agreeing the motion "could be subject to a legal challenge", he added.
However, the general committee agreed to discuss the motion - prompting Moffat to walk out of the meeting, while Iain Gray remained - and then voted to endorse it. "He Gray stayed on but he took no part in any of the proceedings then or afterwards," said one of those present.
It was this vote which last week led to the national Labour party suspending business at the ELCLP.
The situation is a nightmare for Gray, as local members who supported him now want him to come off the fence. After voters in Edinburgh Pentlands kicked him out the Scottish Parliament in 2003, Gray spent four years working as an aide to Alistair Darling at Westminster, before returning to Holyrood via the East Lothian seat.
In July, he launched his campaign to succeed Wendy Alexander as Scottish leader in Prestonpans Labour Club, and raised £4240 of his £7260 fighting fund from the club, the EPCLP and its branches.
"His position is to keep as far from the whole situation as possible. I think he wishes it would just go away," said one of those at the September meeting. "Iain Gray has stood up at public meetings and said that if it wasn't for ELCLP giving him a second chance, he would not be here.
"He's stated that he's proud that he's a member of ELCLP. We have Iain Gray saying these things.
"Jim Murphy the Scottish Secretary is coming to our Prestonpans annual dinner on the 29th to do the after-dinner speech. Yet we have the national Labour Party shutting us down. It's f***ing crazy.
"We have helped the party for years. We have a track record second-to-none. But they're not listening to us."
One member claimed that the prime minister had been kept abreast of the unhappiness among activists over Moffat.
"I know that Gordon Brown has been written to. He's well aware of it. Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, John Reid, they all knew what was going on."
"My view is that there's been a complete cover-up. They all gathered round her. The trade unions are backing her. The MPs are backing her. It's the old thing - if you let one drop they will all drop."
A senior Labour figure in the area said Moffat could now struggle to hold the seat against the SNP at the next election, as local activists would desert her.
"People to whom I talk just don't seem to want to vote her. Probably the Nats would take it. It's a sad day."
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Moffat replies to his critics
The Sunday Herald put a series of allegations made by local party activists to Anne Moffat. In 2007, Sir Philip Mawer, the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards, investigated senior activists' complaints that Moffat misused public funds.
Sunday Herald: What do you make of the complaints to Sir Philip Mawer?
Anne Moffat: "They were malicious complaints made about me that were investigated thoroughly, both at that level of Sir Philip Mawer and the Finance and Administration department in the House of Commons, and there was absolutely no foundation to the allegations whatsoever. I was actually able to prove otherwise."
SH: Did you allow your brother to stay in your publicly-funded London flat while you lived elsewhere?
AM: "Both of my brothers have stayed in my London flat, as has my father, as have friends. I said that to the Commissioner. I said, Why would there be a problem with this?' That was just a nonsense. On every single point I was found innocent."
SH: Were you paying your son Scott to work for you when it was unclear what he was doing?
AM: "There was a period of time when Scott worked for me here, in the office. That was quite a few years ago. Then he came down to work for me just one day a week down in London, and did all sorts of things. That was proved by Sir Philip who investigated that, spoke to other MPs and other people who actually saw Scott on a regular basis."
SH: Some people have suggested the incident in which you said you were mugged was exaggerated. Do you know what the status of your complaint to the police is?
AM: "Well, I suppose you just have to look at the medical records for that. I had broken ribs. I've still got scars that I could show you, but I'm not going to do that. I had no idea they were prepared to go to these lengths, but I should have because they're nasty people."
