Conservative MP Karl McCartney under investigation by Parliament's sleaze watchdog for hiding links to family firm

• EXCLUSIVE: Conservative MP Karl McCartney is under investigation by Parliament's sleaze watchdog.
• For more than a decade, McCartney has concealed his links to a family firm called Moonlighting Systems.
• The probe comes following an Insider investigation into McCartney's expenses and registered interests.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

The Conservative MP Karl McCartney is under investigation by Parliament's sleaze watchdog after an Insider investigation revealed that he had made false declarations for more than a decade about his links to a family firm.

Since he was first elected in 2010, McCartney has declared links to a firm he listed as ML Systems, an IT management and consultancy company, as an unpaid director and shareholder.

He declared payment for work done prior to his election in 2019, with the fee registered as being paid to the company.

However, an investigation by Insider revealed that McCartney was in fact tied to a different company, Moonlighting Systems, whose sole director is McCartney's brother, Kevin.

Karl McCartney is listed as a secretary of the company and a minority shareholder.

Following Insider's reporting, Anneliese Dodds MP, the chair of the Labour Party, wrote to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards (PCS) asking for an investigation to be opened.

Now the PCS has listed McCartney as being under investigation regarding a issue of "registration of interest."

Before the PCS announced her investigation, Dodds told Insider: "If Karl McCartney is moonlighting, we need to know who for - and he shouldn't hide behind the name of a company that no longer exists.

"The rules are there for a reason, the Conservatives can't just act as if they don't apply to them."

In an interview with BBC Radio Lincolnshire, McCartney said: "It's all open and above board. I've got nothing to hide.

"That's the Labour Party for you. They'll throw as much mud as they can. My declaration on my register of members interests has been there for 11 years, obviously, since I was first elected. And it's exactly the same as it was back then as it is now."

Insider also revealed McCartney had claimed more than £30,000 in public funds for Parliamentary work carried out by a company run by a donor who helped him become an MP in 2010.

McCartney concealed nearly £10,000 of those claims by declaring only that he was paying "A", short for the real name of the company, Anagallis Communications.

But this will not be investigated by either the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards or the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, as they say it does not breach rules on expenses claims.

Insider has contacted McCartney for comment, who has repeatedly declined to comment.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by McCartney's brother or Moonlighting Systems.