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LONDON ) -- A British minister resigned on Thursday over allegations that he accepted cash for asking parliamentary questions, dealing a body blow to the country's deeply unpopular Conservative government.
Tim Smith, a junior Northern Ireland minister, offered to step down after the allegations appeared in Thursday's newspapers. Prime Minister John Major accepted the move as "unavoidable."
The allegations had been raised in parliament on Wednesday night by opposition Labour member Stuart Bell, who asserted that lobbyists for millionaire businessman Mohammed Al-Fayed paid thousands of pounds to Smith and Neil Hamilton, now junior trade and industry minister, during a battle for ownership of Harrods department store in 1987-1989.
More Tory Corruption
21 October 1994
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