Byers makes 'unreserved apology'

Stephen Byers makes unreserved apology to Commons over Railtrack affair

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Wednesday, 01, Feb 2006 12:00

Stephen Byers today offered his "unreserved apologies" to the House of Commons for misleading the transport sub-committee over his role in the collapse of Railtrack.

The former transport secretary made a personal statement to MPs over the affair last year, but a report by the standards committee yesterday said this had not been enough.

"The committee recognised that, while in my personal statement of October 17th I had accepted that I gave a factually inaccurate answer, they concluded that I should have apologised unreservedly for having done so," Mr Byers said.

He added: "I accept the committee's conclusion and I therefore offer my unreserved apologies to the House."

Yesterday's report cleared Mr Byers of lying to the transport sub-committee in November 2001, when he said there had been no discussions about restructuring Railtrack before he knew about its precarious financial position. This was subsequently found to be untrue.

In his statement to MPs this afternoon, Mr Byers said he was "grateful" for their findings, adding: "As I told the committee at the time, an accurate reply at the time would not have caused me no problems politically or legally."

However, the standards committee said the North Tyneside MP's assertion in October that at the time he misunderstood the correct meaning of "discussions" was an "unwise" attempt to devise an explanation where he could no longer remember the real one.

"Given that Mr Byers could not recall why he gave the answer he did, he should have said so to the House in his personal statement on October 17th 2005 and apologised unreservedly. We recommend that he now does so," the committee report said.