George Galloway, the independent British member of parliament, charged yesterday that a Senate investigation that alleged he was granted Iraqi oil allocations was a "smokescreen" aimed at obscuring criticism of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

In blistering testimony in Washington, he said the committee had no evidence he received any money from an alleged 20m barrels of oil allocations issued to him, through his associates, in return for his support for lifting sanctions against the regime of Saddam Hussein.