The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, yesterday resisted Opposition demands for his resignation, insisting he had done nothing wrong in the so-called "cash-for-wigs" affair.
In his first public comments since it was revealed he had invited Labour-supporting lawyers to donate at least £200 a head to a fund-raising dinner to boost the party's election fund, Lord Irvine told peers in the House of Lords that he had not broken any current rules. He said he did not believe any of the lawyers attending the dinner "could conceivably have thought the donation could have brought an appointments advantage," but he admitted that in future he would give greater consideration to taking part in fund-raising. But the Conservative leader in the House of Lords, Lord Strathclyde, accused Lord Irvine of "arrogantly" failing to apologise for actions that had been "universally condemned" and he repeated the party's call for his resignation.