Tory MP set to be suspended from Commons after breaking lobbying rules
A Tory MP is set to be suspended for breaching paid lobbying rules and for levelling a damaging slur at the sleaze watchdog.
Andrew Bridgen was found to have a ‘cavalier’ attitude to the rules on paid advocacy by the Standards Commissioner.
The North West Leicestershire was found to have broken strict restrictions on the work MPs can carry out on behalf of companies and how it must be publicly declared.
He approached ministers more than a dozen times on behalf of Mere Plantations, a company based in his constituency.
The firm had donated to his local party, paid for him to travel to their facility in Ghana and had formally asked him to be an advisor.
Mr Bridgen was originally slated to earn £12,000 a year in the role of ‘director’ but backed out shortly after signing a contract and has not received payment from the company.
The report reveals he made ‘wholly unsubstantiated and false allegations’ against the standards commissioner Kathryn Stone OBE and ‘attempted improperly to influence the House’s standards processes’.
Emails disclosed in the report reveal he suggested without evidence that the commissioner was under pressure to reach the ‘right’ outcomes on investigations in order to secure a peerage from Downing Street.
In correspondence deemed to have been an attempt to influence the findings, he alluded to ‘rumours’ that Ms Stone was in line to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Mr Bridgen, an outspoken critics against leaders of his own party, said his ‘own travails with Number 10 and the former PM have been well documented and obviously a small part of me is naturally concerned to hear such rumours’.
He went on to say he didn’t believe the ‘gossip’ but sought assurances ‘that you are not about to be offered an honour or peerage and that the rumours are indeed malicious and baseless’.
The report said that ‘if Mr Bridgen felt he had evidence of potentially criminal wrongdoing he should have provided this to the investigating authorities’.
It continued: ‘Mr Bridgen has breached the rules of the House on registration, declaration and paid lobbying on multiple occasions and in multiple ways.
‘Each of these breaches could have led us to recommend a suspension from the service of the House.
‘Mr Bridgen has demonstrated a very cavalier attitude to the House’s rules on
registration and declaration of interests, including repeatedly saying that he did
not check his own entry in the register.’
The report recommends a five-day suspension – which is not long enough to trigger a by-election – and MPs will be asked to confirm it.
In a statement, the Tory MP said: ‘Whilst I am extremely disappointed with the recommendations of the committee, I accept them and will comply with them as required to do so.’
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