Three British Labour Party MPs have been suspended after a hidden camera TV programme showed them agreeing to lobby for a commercial company in return for cash.

Journalists from TV station Channel Four posed as representatives of a US company and approached the MPs, asking them  to put in a good word for this company with their political connections.

The suspended MPs, who include former cabinet ministers, agreed to do so in return for payments of between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds a day. They insist, however, that they did no wrong.

With a general election looming, the scandal is bad news for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose Labour Party is shown by opinion polls to be struggling.

It also puts another dent in British voters' confidence in the integrity of their politicians, which was already at a low ebb following last year's discovery that many MPs had wrongfully claimed expenses.