Twenty-four MPs who voted to overhaul Parliament’s standards system are either under current investigation by its commissioner or have had allegations upheld against them since the 2019 General Election.
MPs yesterday voted 250 to 232 in favour of an amendment aimed at preventing the immediate suspension of former Conservative minister Owen Paterson after he was found to have broken Parliamentary rules.
Mr Paterson had faced a six-week suspension after Parliament’s standards committee found that he had breached lobbying rules on behalf of two companies, which between them were paying him more than £100,000 a year.
The amendment, which passed by 18 votes, has seen allegations of “Tory Sleaze” resurface, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused of “moving the goalposts” to protect his stronghold in the Commons.
Key to that 18-vote majority was the backing of 19 Tory MPs who have had allegations upheld against them since the last General Election, Insider first revealed.
Those include Adam Afriyie, Scott Benton, Crispin Blunt, Peter Bone, Maria Caulfield, Robert Courts, Richard Drax, David Duguid, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Mark Francois, George Freeman, Adam Holloway, Karl McCartney, Natalie Elphicke, Sir Roger Gale, Theresa Villiers, Bob Stewart, Chloe Smith, and Craig Tracey.
The amendment would not have passed if those 19 Conservative MPs had abstained from the vote.
The Government has since U-turned after facing significant political backlash, and Mr Paterson has resigned.
The latest revelations will likely leave Mr Johnson red-faced, with the Prime Minister forced to sweep up the aftermath of a scrapped amendment that he himself voted for to protect an MP who has since resigned.
Mr Johnson was previously found to have breached the code of conduct by having not “fulfilled conscientiously” the requirements to register donations, following confusion over who paid for his 2019 holiday to Mustique. The ruling was later overturned by the Committee on Standards.
Meanwhile, the three amendment-backers currently under investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards include Tory MPs James Cleverly, Daniel Kawczynski and David Warburton.
Here are the complaints against the MPs:
Boris Johnson
The Prime Minister was referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards earlier this year for the way in which he reported a Christmas trip to the Caribbean between 26 December 2019 and 5 January 2020.
Mr Johnson named Carphone Warehouse co-founder and close friend David Ross as the donor of the £15,000 trip in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
Mr Ross had facilitated the villa in Mustique for Mr Johnson and then-girlfriend Carrie Symonds, but a spokesman for the businessman said in early 2020 that he neither owned the villa nor paid for Mr Johnson’s stay there.
The Commissioner found that the Prime Minister had breached the MPs’ code of conduct because he did not “make sufficient inquiries to establish the full facts about the funding arrangements for his free accommodation, either before his holiday, as he should have done, or in 2020”.
However, the Committee on Standards, which is made up of MPs and members of the public, said it reached a different conclusion after receiving additional evidence. It stated that Mr Johnson’s account was “accurate and complete”.
Owen Paterson
Owen Paterson, a veteran Tory MP and former minister, was accused of sending a number of emails to the Food Standards Agency and the Department for International Development on behalf of two companies which paid him more than £100,000 per year between them.
After a lengthy investigation, the standards watchdog ruled that the Tory MP for North Shropshire acted in a way which constituted paid advocacy on behalf of Randox and Lynn’s Country Foods, which is prohibited in the MPs’ code of conduct.
The Commissioner recommended that he be suspended from Parliament for 30 days.
He has denied any wrongdoing and criticised the way the investigation was carried out, attributing it as a major factor in the suicide of his wife last year.
Mr Paterson resigned this afternoon following the Government’s U-turn on the issue.
Adam Afriyie
It emerged in November 2019 that Adam Afriyie had been renting out a £4.5m mansion in his Windsor constituency for £1,950 a night on Airbnb. The Daily Mirror reported at the time that Mr Afriyie had failed to register the income from his Grade II listed Old Windsor House on the Parliament’s register of interests.
Parliamentary rules state that property worth more than £100,000 or rental income over £10,000 a year must be declared.
A Parliamentary investigation upheld the complaint and concluded that Mr Afriyie had breached the MPs’ code of conduct by failing to register his ownership and rental of the Windsor house, and that he had also failed to register a similar previous interest.
Mr Afriyie apologised for the error and insisted he had “taken steps to ensure” the register was updated.
Scott Benton
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards received a complaint in July last year claiming that Scott Benton, the Conservative MP for Blackpool South, had failed to log six entries in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests within the House’s 28-day deadline.
An investigation concluded that Mr Benton had breached the MPs’ code of conduct by failing to register payments he had received for work as a Tory MP’s researcher before he was elected to the Commons himself.
Mr Benton apologised for “inadvertently breaching the rules” and said he had rectified the matter.
Crispin Blunt
A complaint was lodged against Crispin Blunt, Tory MP for Reigate and chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Global LGBT+ rights, in September last year.
The complaint alleged that Mr Blunt had broken APPG rules around transparency by failing to make a report on gender self identification available to the public online. The complaint also claimed that Mr Blunt had failed to upload dates of the APPG’s past and future meetings, as well as the minutes of previous formal meetings.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards upheld the complaint, ruling that Mr Blunt had breached the MPs’ code of conduct. They also identified that the website and published reports did not carry the required disclaimers, which amounted to a further breach of the rules for APPGs.
The Commissioner concluded that although Mr Blunt had broken Parliamentary standards on three occasions, the breaches were “inadvertent and at the less serious end of the spectrum”.
Peter Bone
Peter Bone, Tory MP for Wellingborough, was found to have breached Parliamentary rules for APPGs by making a late registration of a financial interest.
Mr Bone, chair of the APPG on American Football, had failed to register in time a £13,500 payment made to the group by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Commissioner ruled that although Mr Bone had broken Parliamentary standards on three occasions, the breaches were “at the less serious end of the spectrum”.
Maria Caulfield
A complaint was made against Maria Caulfield, MP for Lewes, in July last year for using Parliamentary paper and envelopes, paid for by the taxpayer, to send letters out to constituents expressing her personal opinions.
The Standards Commissioner ruled that she had breached the code of conduct by using Parliamentary stationery to contact constituents “in connection with work for or at the behest of a political party”.
Ms Caulfield acknowledged and apologised for her breach of the rules and has stated that she “would certainly be more cautious on sending out any future letters”, as well as promising to repay the House £364 for misused stationery and postage.
Robert Courts
Robert Courts, Tory MP for Witney, was found to have breached Parliamentary standards by failing to register payments he had received within the 28-day deadline, including money he earnt as a barrister, payment for his attendance at numerous events run by the APPG for the Armed Forces and two donations.
Mr Courts admitted he should have registered seven separate payments sooner, and insisted it would not happen again.
Richard Drax
Richard Drax, Conservative MP for South Dorset, was ruled to have breached Parliamentary standards by failing “to conscientiously register his financial interests in line with the requirements of the House”.
The Commissioner said Mr Drax had failed to declare a property in Yorkshire to the Register of Members’ Financial Interests within the 28-day time limit, and had also failed to remove a property in London from the within the same timeframe.
The MP apologised for the two “oversights” and amended the record.
David Duguid
The Scottish Conservative MP for Banff and Buchan was deemed to have breached Parliamentary rules by using taxpayer-funded stationery and postage-paid envelopes to send constituents a general update on a range of issues.
A complainant had raised concerns that the “real purpose of this unsolicited letter is political campaigning.”
The complaint was upheld by the Commissioner and Mr Duguid was ordered to pay back £778.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith
The former Tory leader and MP for Chingford and Woodford Green was found to have breached Parliamentary standards by failing to register payments he received for various newspaper articles between March and June last year within the 28-day deadline.
Sir Iain netted £3,645 for 10 articles he wrote for the Sun, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.
The Tory MP said the late registration was “unusual” for him and had been caused by disruption during the Covid pandemic.
Mark Francois
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards ruled that Mark Francois broke the MPs’ code of conduct after sending a letter to Michel Barnier, head of the European Commission, in June last year.
The Commissioner concluded that Mr Francois had breached official standards by using Parliamentary stationery to send a letter expressing his personal interests.
Mr Francois sent the letter to Mr Barnier in his capacity as a member of the “effectively secretive self-interest group called ERG (European Research Group),” according to the Commissioner.
George Freeman
George Freeman was found to have broken Parliamentary standards by offering tours of the House of Commons as raffle prizes on several occasions.
The Tory MP for Mid Norfolk admitted that he had offered free tours of Parliament on “approximately” 10 occasions, but insisted that they were given as “Afternoon Tea and Tour of Parliament” packages in support of local causes. He later accepted the Commissioner’s ruling that they amounted to raffle prizes and apologised for breaching the code of conduct.
Mr Freeman also had a complaint made against him about the use of official Parliamentary stationery upheld by the Commissioner for Standards. The Commissioner found that Mr Freeman had acted in breach of the code of conduct by sending a general update that highlighted his own work on issues of local interest on the eve of an election campaign.
The MP accepted the Commissioner’s ruling and agreed to repay £759 “to reimburse the public purse”.
Adam Holloway
Adam Holloway, the Tory MP for Gravesham, was found to have breached Parliamentary rules earlier this year for failing to declare two UK properties as interests on the MPs’ register, including agricultural land in Devon and a residential property in Kent, where he lived in until 2017.
The Commissioner ruled that Mr Holloway also breached the code of conduct by failing to register a £200 payment made to him by polling firm Ipsos Mori within the required window.
Further, the Commissioner noted that the MP had failed to make it sufficiently clear that his visit to Qatar in February last year was paid for by the Qatari Government, which amounted to an additional breach of MPs’ standards.
He was later found to have broken the rules for attempting to influence senior judges ahead of the trial of Charlie Elphicke, a former colleague, for sexual assault.
Karl McCartney
The MP for Lincoln breached the Parliamentary code three times for failing to declare links to family firm Moonlighting Systems.
The issue was first referred to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in January last year by Labour Chair Anneliese Dodds, who noted that Mr McCartney had registered his interest in ML Systems – a separate company.
In her report, the Commissioner said: “Having considered the information available to me, I concluded that by registering a shortened version of the company’s name… Mr McCartney’s entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests was incorrect.”
The Commissioner added that Mr McCartney’s breaches were minor and could be addressed by making a corrected entry in the Register of Members’ Interests, placed in bold italics.
Chloe Smith
The Tory MP for Norwich North was found to have breached MPs’ standards for the late registration of five different donations from the Computer Service Centre in Norwich amounting to more than £38,750.
The Commissioner said Ms Smith “immediately acknowledged and apologised for her breach of the rules and provided an explanation for how this had happened,” which she conferred in private.
Theresa Villiers, Natalie Elphicke, Sir Roger Gale, Adam Holloway and Bob Stewart
Five Conservative MPs broke the code of conduct over an attempt to influence legal proceedings relating to the conviction of former MP Charlie Elphicke, the standards committee ruled in July.
The Commissioner said the MPs had broken Parliamentary rules by using Commons notepaper to write letters to senior judges raising concerns that a more junior judge was considering publishing character references provided for Mr Elphicke.
The MPs wrote to Dame Kathryn Thirlwall, the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, and Dame Victoria Sharp, the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, also copying in Mrs Justice Whipple, who had heard the trial of Mr Elphicke and was due to decide on the application to release the character references.
The committee said the MPs’ letters amounted to “an attempt improperly to influence judicial proceedings”.
It said that “such egregious behaviour is corrosive to the rule of law and, if allowed to continue unchecked, could undermine public trust in the independence of judges,” adding that their behaviour had “caused significant damage to the reputation and integrity” of the House of Commons.
Sir Roger, Ms Villiers and Ms Elphicke, the then partner of Mr Elphicke, were temporarily suspended from the Commons, while Mr Holloway and Mr Stewart were ordered to make a statement apologising for their behaviour in the chamber.
Mr Elphicke was given two years in prison in September 2020 after being found guilty of three counts of sexual assault. He was released after serving half his sentence.
Craig Tracey
The Conservative MP for North Warwickshire and Bedworth, and Chair of the APPG for Golf, was deemed to have breached Parliamentary standards last year for the late registration of several donations.
Mr Tracey failed to declare six donations made to the APPG for Golf between August 2018 and January 2020, worth £42,000 in total. The donations were made by US sports equipment firm PING, the UK Golf Federation, the British Golf Industry Association, agriculture firm Syngenta, The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the Belfry hotel in Sutton Coldfield.
APPGs that receive more than £12,500 from outside Parliament in one year are also subject to stricter reporting rules, which Mr Tracey was found to have broken.
The Commissioner said: “While I identified breaches of four of the rules for APPGs, I found they were at the less serious end of the spectrum.”
