Tory MP Andrew Bridgen faces Commons suspension for lobbying breach
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen should be suspended from the House of Commons for breaking parliament’s lobbying rules, Westminster’s standards watchdog has said.
The watchdog found Bridgen broke parliamentary standards rules by not properly recording his lobbying work for Mere Plantations – a forestry company.
Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, received a £5,000 donation from the firm months after lobbying on their behalf.
Standards commissioner Kathryn Stone said he had completed paid work for the firm “on multiple occasions and in multiple ways”, without properly registering his remuneration, and should receive a five-day parliamentary suspension.
The Standards Committee report said: “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 committee also said that Bridgen questioned Stone’s reputation during the committee’s investigation.
Bridgen wrote to Stone and said there was “an unsubstantiated rumour that your contract as Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is due to end in the coming months and that there are advanced plans to offer you a peerage”.
He said: “There is also some suggestion amongst colleagues that those plans are dependent upon arriving at the ‘right’ outcomes when conducting parliamentary standards investigations … you are rightfully renowned for your integrity and decency and no doubt such rumours are only designed to harm your reputation.”
The MP was highly critical of Boris Johnson and repeatedly called for him to resign in the latter months of his premiership.
There have been rumours Stone is set for a peerage from Johnson.
Duncan Hames, director of policy at Transparency International UK, said: “Reports of MPs breaking lobbying rules continue to dent the public’s trust in their politicians.
“Our elected representatives are in Westminster to serve their constituents, not the interests of private companies that agree to pay them or fund their election campaigns. MPs should urgently revisit previously shelved plans to limits MPs’ second jobs, and make these lobbying scandals a thing of the past.”