London - BBC war reporter-turned independent MP Mr Martin Bell has been put forward by the Tories to join the Commons sleaze watchdog committee, it emerged last night.
Mr Bell entered Parliament on May 1st having ousted Mr Neil Hamilton, the former Tory minister at the centre of the cash-for-questions row, from his seat in Tatton, Cheshire. Mr Bell has said before that he would like to be on the Standards and Privileges Committee.
Last week, Ms Ann Widdecombe, a Tory MP, resigned from the committee in protest at the way it handled investigations into the Hamilton affair.