FORMER foreign secretaries Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw were cleared of any wrongdoing yesterday over the so-called cash for access scandal, a parliamentary standards watchdog declared yesterday.

Undercover reporters secretly filmed Mr Rifkind claiming he could arrange “useful access” to every British ambassador in the world.

Mr Straw allegedly told the journalists posing as communication agency reps hoping to bring British MPs on to their board that he had operated “under the radar,” using his influence to change European Union rules on behalf of a commodity firm which paid him £60,000 a year.

But Commons standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson found “there was no breach of the rules on paid lobbying” or the rules of the House “other than in Mr Straw’s case — by a minor misuse of parliamentary resources.”

She added: “If … the reporters for Dispatches and the Daily Telegraph had accurately reported what was said by the two members in their interviews — and measured their words against the rules of the House — it would have been possible to avoid the damage that has been done to the lives of two individuals and those around them, and to the reputation of the House.”

A Channel 4 spokesman said: “Dispatches stands by its journalism; this was a fair and accurate account of what the two MPs said. This investigation was in the public interest and revealed matters which were of serious public concern.”

And the Telegraph said it believed voters would find it “remarkable” that Parliament investigates the misconduct of its own members given the MPs’ expenses scandal.