INDEPENDENT SLEAZE WATCHDOG BACKED

Demands for a shake-up come after Tony Blair was accused of "sacking" one critical regulator who criticised his regime by not renewing his term.

A report by the public administration committee said the bodies needed to be "robustly and conspicuously independent" of the executive.

"It is unsatisfactory for the ethical regulators created to regulate government to be appointed by government and funded by government," it concluded.

And it suggested appointments should be agreed by all parties with Parliament given the final say and no one allowed to serve more than one term.

Controversy surrounded the Cabinet Office decision not to renew Sir Alistair Graham's term as chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

It raised fears that Mr Blair wanted to scrap the independent body, set up by former PM Sir John Major in the wake of Tory sleaze scandals, or merge it into another.

An interim chairwoman, Rita Donaghy, was appointed on Monday to run the Committee until December - with the Government awaiting the MPs' report before deciding how to act.

The report found that the ethical regulation system had been set up in a "haphazard" way - with Governments creating new bodies as responses to individual scandals. It had nevertheless proved "effective" - raising public awareness of issues such as party funding and cash-for-honours allegations, it said.

The Tories have accused the Prime Minister of "cynical" behaviour in removing Sir Alistair, who had been highly critical of the Labour regime's record on sleaze.