Warsi apologises over Pakistan trip

Conservative Party co-chairman Sayeeda Warsi has apologised to Prime Minister David Cameron over a ministerial trip to Pakistan with her business partner, according to BBC.
Lady Warsi was alleged by a newspaper to have failed to declare she and Abid Hussain, who was on the trip in 2010, had stakes in the same firm. She has apologised for any “embarrassment to the government”.
Cameron said he had asked his independent adviser on ministerial interests to look into the case.
She said Mr Hussain was her husband’s second cousin and this was “widely known”, both to her private office and the British High Commission in Pakistan.
But she said she did not realise the fact they had “a common business interest as minority shareholders in a small food company” also had to be declared.
“I sincerely regret that I did not consider the significance of this relationship with Mr Hussain when the arrangements for the visit were being made. “In retrospect, I accept that I should have made officials aware of the business relationship between Mr Hussain and myself, and for this I am sorry.
“I regret that this failure may have caused embarrassment to the government.”
Replying to Baroness Warsi, Cameron said “there are clearly some lessons for future handling and I have asked Alex Allan, my adviser on ministers’ interests, to consider the issues that have been raised with respect to the Ministerial Code and to provide advice to me as rapidly as possible”.
The Sunday Telegraph reported she did not declare her directorship and shareholding in the spice company, Rupert’s Recipes.
Labour want the police to investigate separate allegations over accommodation allowances.
‘Appropriate payment’: Lady Warsi is already being investigated by a parliament watchdog over reports she claimed accommodation allowance while staying with a friend rent-free.
Lady Warsi has said she made an “appropriate payment” to her friend – now her special adviser – Naweed Khan, who was renting the house in which she stayed.
But the owner of the property in Acton, west London, Dr Wafik Moustafa, said he never received any money from her. She has referred the allegations to the Lords commissioner for standards, Paul Kernaghan.