A Tory MP ought to be suspended from the Commons for failing to declare exterior paid work – then threatening to not hand the requirements commissioner a peerage if she dominated in opposition to him, the Standards Committee has beneficial
Andrew Bridgen ought to be suspended for 5 sitting days, the parliamentary committee that oversees the work of the requirements commissioner stated.
The committee discovered the MP had breached the Code of Conduct by making a number of approaches to ministers and public officers on behalf of Mere Plantations, a teak reforestation firm primarily based in Ghana for which he was initially being paid £12,000 a 12 months as an adviser.
He additionally didn’t register his curiosity within the firm in the time-frame stipulated by the code.
The committee additionally discovered Mr Bridgen had tried to improperly affect Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone throughout her investigation.
He emailed the Commissioner shortly after the investigation began and implied she may lose a possible peerage if she didn’t come to the “right” consequence.
The MP wrote to Ms Stone: “I used to be distressed to listen to on various events an unsubstantiated hearsay that your contract as Parliamentary Standards Commissioner is because of finish within the coming months and that there are superior plans to give you a peerage, probably as quickly because the prime minister’s resignation honours checklist.
“There is also some suggestion amongst colleagues that those plans are dependent upon arriving at the ‘right’ outcomes when conducting parliamentary standards investigation.
“I do apologise if you happen to discover the contents of this letter offensive, it’s actually not my intention, however I’d be grateful if you happen to would supply me reassurance that you’re not about to be provided an honour or peerage and that the rumours are certainly malicious and baseless.”
He instructed the committee the e-mail was purely “seeking assurance” however they dismissed that and stated he “clearly did not need to seek official reassurance from anyone about rumours that he himself described as ‘unsubstantiated’ and likely ‘malicious and baseless”.
They stated he didn’t apologise for the e-mail or acknowledge he mustn’t have emailed the commissioner as he did.
The committee added Mr Bridgen’s e mail “appears to be an attempt to place wholly inappropriate pressure on the Commissioner. This was completely unacceptable behaviour”.
Source: information.sky.com”