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. As a result, Mr Galloway faces being suspended from the Commons for 18 sitting days.

In his report, published yesterday, Sir Philip is coy about how he obtained the document, saying only that he “became aware” last year that a record may exist of a meeting between Mr Galloway and Saddam, and “began inquiries to see if I could obtain a copy”. He did so in November, he said. The document says that during the meeting, which took place in August 2002, Mr Galloway praised Tariq Aziz, Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, who also attended, for helping to secure his financial backing.

Mr Galloway, addressing Saddam as “Your Excellency”, tells him: “Mr Tariq Aziz has helped us with his contacts . . . 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.”

There was also a reference to discussions between Mr Galloway and Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, Iraq’s Information Minister, who earned the nickname Comical Ali for his surreal defiance as the regime fell. Mr Galloway dismissed the account as fraudulent when it was put to him by Sir Philip.

After considering Sir Philip’s findings, a committee of senior MPs concluded that Mr Galloway had secretly accepted funding from Saddam’s regime. The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee said that there was “strong circumstantial evidence” that Mr Galloway “connived” with the former Iraqi Government to accept financial backing for his campaign against Western sanctions. It accused the former Labour MP, who returned to the Commons in 2005 for Respect, of damaging the reputation of the Commons, saying that he must apologise and be suspended for 18 sitting days when MPs return from their recess. Effectively, this means from October 8 to November 5.

First, however, there will be a lively Commons debate — probably next week — in which MPs will be asked to approve his suspension and Mr Galloway has the opportunity to apologise.

The report focused on the funding of the Mariam Appeal, an organisation set up by Mr Galloway, then still a Labour MP, in 1998 initially to pay for treatment for Mariam Hamza, an Iraqi girl suffering from leukaemia. He blamed her condition on weapons used in the 1991 Gulf war. The MPs criticised Mr Galloway for failing to comply with rules that require MPs to declare financial interests, saying that he should have registered donations to the Mariam Appeal.

They concluded: “We agree . . . that there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Oil-for-Food programme was used by the Iraqi Government, with Mr Galloway’s connivance, to fund the campaigning activities of the Mariam Appeal. In acting as he did, Mr Galloway . . . damaged the reputation of the House.”

Mr Galloway issued a statement attacking members of the Standards and Privileges Committee as “pro-war and pro-sanctions”. He said: “Yet again I have been cleared of taking a single penny or in any way personally benefiting from the former Iraqi regime through the Oil-for-Food programme or any other means.”

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