Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s political career is over. Following the Dispatches/Telegraph lobbying expose, the former Conservative defence and foreign secretary and MP for Kensington has announced he is standing down at the next election. This has created a vacancy in one of the most sought-after Tory seats in the country, represented in a previous incarnation by Alan Clark and Michael Portillo.
It’s hard to see how Sir Malcolm could have stayed on. His unforgiven attitude to the cash for access accusations — and remarks suggesting his £67,000 salary as an MP wouldn’t allow him to ‘have the standard of living my professional background would normally entitle me to have’ — were toxic for the Tories. His party withdrew the whip yesterday, and it seems that he’s been shown the door. Straw had hoped for a peerage — Labour has rightly said that this wont happen. Rifkind, who refused go to the Lords when he lost his seat in 1997, now can forget any elevation to the upper house.
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