John Redwood's letter is an attack on Margaret Beckett

Redwood Claims Commons Has Been Misled

John Redwood has made a further attack on the Government and the shareholdings of the Trade Minister, Lord Simon.

In an open letter to the President of the Board of Trade, Margaret Beckett, he claimed the House of Commons had been misled over the whole affair.

The Shadow Trade Secretary's letter is an assault on the conduct of Mrs Beckett. He has accused her of giving inadequate answers to all his questions over the past few weeks. Mr Redwood wrote: "I can only conclude that you misled the House on more than one occasion."

Downing Street has firmly dismissed the claims.

John Redwood has been pursuing Lord Simon, the former BP chairman turned Minister for Trade and Competitiveness in Europe, over his shares. Lord Simon still retains shares in the oil and gas company and the Tory MP believes a potential conflict of interest exists.

Downing Street: "Lord Simon has broken no rules"

The Government has insisted Lord Simon has broken no rules and is prevented from dealing with any policy matters which may have a bearing on BP.

But Mr Redwood has pointed to what he claims are inconsistencies in the statements made by ministers. His letter highlighted alleged contradictions between Mrs Beckett's assurance last month that Lord Simon had placed the generality of his investments in blind trusts and comments by Leader of the House, Ann Taylor, implying there was a delay in the trusts being set up.

He accused Mrs Beckett of failing to apologise for making "mistakes" in her assurances that the shares were already in blind trusts. He also questioned the status of shares held by Lord Simon in the food and drink company, Grand Metropolitan. It was reported that some of these shares were still held in Lord Simon's name.

But a Downing Street spokesman dismissed Mr Redwood's criticisms. "The allegation they are not in the blind trust is completely wrong," the spokesman said.