SO THE shambles of Hyndburn candidate Hugh Neil's bid to become Britain's first black Tory MP reaches new heights of sham and farce today - with this newspaper's revelation that the man is an undischarged bankrupt.

And that's on top of all the other things he is, or isn't - in contradiction to his glittering CV that dazzled the gullible Tory selectors.

Embarrassing for them?

Too right, it is.

After all, the man they picked could not, as an undischarged bankrupt, be an MP anyway - by law.

And that's apart from the fuss and fury so far over Mr Neil allegedly lying about his background and the row he stoked up with claims that racist bigots in Hyndburn were out to get him.

But now that he awaits the formality of inevitable deselection, having already been mortally wounded by the Tory association's vote of no confidence, is there not one question that Conservatives at Hyndburn and, moreover, at the party's Central Office need to answer?

Namely, if this newspaper could find out the truth about Mr Neil, why couldn't they?

Just how does a person who is an undischarged bankrupt - never mind, all the other bogus stuff in the background which Mr Neil gave the party - get on the approved list of candidates?

Does no-one check?

Amazingly, Central Office today says it has a comprehensive system for checking the background of candidates.

Well, they could have fooled us.

According to the chairman at Hyndburn, who presided over this debacle, all they relied on was the integrity of the people putting themselves forward.

They have certainly made fools of themselves - and virtually lost any chance they had of clawing back this important marginal seat.

But now the embarrassing truth is out, let us reflect on where it came from - the inquiries of a newspaper investigating the real story in the public interest.

And let us reflect, too, why so many politicians are keen on laws to gag the press - if it is in their interest to keep secret the truth about themselves.

For make no mistake about it, if privacy laws as envisaged had ever come about we would have had a well nigh impossible task in exposing Mr Neil's deception.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.