TAXI FOR BYERS; Labour suspend ex-cabinet minister, Hewitt and Hoon over lobby claims.

Byline: Torcuil Crichton

THREE grubbing former cabinet ministers were kicked out of the Labour Party last night as colleagues turned on the "taxi for hire" MPs.

Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon will be suspended f rom the Parliamentary Labour Party after being recorded touting themselves for business to a bogus lobby firm set up by a television company.

The decision was taken after a controversial programme, using undercover footage of politicians, showed Byers bragging that he could change Government policy.

He said that he was a "taxi for hire" at pounds 5000 a day for lobby firms.

Byers, Hoon and Hewitt all deny any wrongdoing and Byers has referred himself for a standards inquiry.

PM Gordon Brown took the action after he was satisfied the three had not managed to change Government policy. He dismissed calls for an inquiry by the top UK civil servant.

Chief Labour whip Nick Brown suspended the three after the programme was aired last night.

They were not popular among Gordon Brown's team, not least because Hoon and Hewitt led a coup against the Prime Minister in January. And Byers was a Blairite who had criticised Brown.

Ex-transport secretary Byers was filmed claiming to have saved millions for National Express, who wanted out of their East Coast mainline franchise.

He also said he had spoken to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson about getting food labelling proposals delayed on behalf of Tesco.

Earlier in the Lords, Transport Secretary Lord Adonis told peers there was "no truth" in claims he came to "any arrangement" over National Express with Stephen Byers.

The business department also denied the claims, as did Tesco and National Express.

Byers later confessed he had overstated his case and had never lobbied ministers.

Commons Leader Harriet Harman said that, in response to a request from the Prime Minister, the heads of three Whitehall departments had looked into claims raised in the documentary.

She said: "They have assured Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell they are satisfied that there has been no improper influence on Government policy or ministerial decisions."

She confirmed Government plans for a legally enforceable register on which lobbyists must name their clients.

Also suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party is backbencher Margaret Moran, Labour MP for Luton South, who featured in the programme.

CAPTION(S):

FILMED: Geoff Hoon STING: Patricia Hewitt BOASTS: Stephen Byers