George Galloway, the MP who campaigned against the Iraq war, is to be suspended from parliament over his links to the United Nations oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

The parliamentary standards watchdog will rule this week that Galloway failed properly to declare his links to a charitable appeal partially funded from money made by selling Iraqi oil under Saddam Hussein, according to a source close to the inquiry. The one-month suspension for Galloway, often referred to as "Gorgeous George", is one of the most severe given to an MP.

Galloway, who was expelled from Labour, is now an MP for the Respect party. He may also be asked to apologise to the Commons for his behaviour but will launch a robust defence of his conduct. He denies any wrongdoing.

The UN oil-for-food programme was set up to allow Saddam to sell Iraqi oil to buy humanitarian supplies, but he corruptly awarded oil contracts to politicians and businessmen around the world.

In 1998 Galloway founded the Mariam Appeal, which campaigned for the lifting of sanctions on Iraq. The appeal, which paid Galloway's wife and funded international travel for the MP, received almost £450,000 from Fawaz Zureikat, a Jordanian businessman who was also a trustee of the appeal. It subsequently emerged that more than half of this money came from the proceeds of Iraqi oil sales. An investigation by the American Senate alleged that the Mariam Appeal was used by the Iraqi regime to finance Galloway.

However, the MP strenuously denies that he was complicit in any such arrangement and claims he is the victim of a smear campaign. He says he had no idea that the money donated had come from Iraqi oil sales. [LINK]

But is Galloway telling the truth that he had no idea that the money was from sale of Iraqi oil?

George Galloway personally thanked Saddam Hussein for his regime's financial backing in a campaign against sanctions on Iraq, and even asked him to raise the payments, according to a Commons report.

He also offered to help to set up an Iraqi satellite television channel in collaboration with Saddam, broadcasting in English, months before the war began.

An account of their meeting, published for the first time in a Commons report into Mr Galloway's failure to declare his financial backers, contradicts the MP's repeated insistence that he was unaware of receiving money from the former Iraqi regime.

The record was unearthed by Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, during a four-year inquiry into the Respect MP's activities. [LINK]

George Galloway not only knew where the money was coming from, he begged for more.

From the transcript of George Galloway's meeting with Saddam Hussein on 8 August, 2002:

"Thank you very much Mr President. Finally, may I say that our work has been going on for years and I believe that Your Excellency is aware of the results which we have achieved. Mr Tariq Aziz has helped us with his contacts and has used his influence to facilitate our job and facilitate the mechanism by which we have been able to obtain the funding necessary to finance our activities. But, we are now suffering from the problem of the price of oil which has resulted in a reduction in our income and delay in receiving our dues." [LINK]

George Galloway received proceeds from the sale of Iraqi oil to fund his political campaign to keep Saddam Hussein securely ensconced as Iraq's dictator.