MP wants voting ban on Names

THE GOVERNMENT faces fresh embarrassment today over links with the stricken Lloyd's insurance market with a call for 44 Tory MPs to be barred from voting on Finance Bill measures to help Names offset losses against future profits, writes Patricia Wynn Davies.

Peter Hain, Labour MP for Neath, has written to Betty Boothroyd, the Speaker, arguing that the 44, all listed as Names in the Commons register of MPs' interests, should not vote. He has invoked a 1981 precedent when Names were advised not to vote on a private Lloyd's Bill.

The 44 include Peter Brooke, Secretary of State for National Heritage; David Hunt, Secretary of State for Employment; Ian Lang, Secretary of State for Scotland; Sir Nicholas Lyell, the Attorney General; and Sir Norman Fowler, Tory party chairman.