Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen should be suspended from the Commons for a “cavalier” violation of lobbying and standards rules, a parliamentary watchdog has recommended.
Mr Bridgen broke the code of conduct by lobbying ministers on behalf of Mere Plantations – a reforesting firm from whom he had received “registrable financial benefits”, the Committee on Standards found.
The cross-party committee advised a five-day suspension for breaching rules on registration, declaration and paid lobbying “on multiple occasions and in multiple ways”.
The MP was recommended for suspension for two days for breaches of the MPs’ code of conduct and a further three days for an “unacceptable attack upon the integrity” of standards commissioner Kathryn Stone.
Mr Bridgen asked Ms Stone in an email – as revealed by The Independent in September – about unsubstantied rumours that she was in line for peerage and questioned whether it could have influenced her approach to corruption probes.
The committee found that Mr Bridgen had called Ms Stone’s “integrity into question” on the basis of “wholly unsubstantiated and false allegations”.
The MP wrote an email to Ms Stone saying he was distressed to hear “an unsubstantiated rumour that your contract ... is due to end in the coming months and that there are advanced plans to offer you a peerage”.
He added: “There is also some suggestion amongst colleagues that those plans are dependent upon arriving at the ‘right’ outcomes when conducting parliamentary standards investigations … no doubt such rumours are only designed to harm your reputation.”
The Standards Committee said Mr Bridgen’s email appeared to be “an attempt to place wholly inappropriate pressure on the commissioner” which is “completely unacceptable behaviour”.
Mr Bridgen confirmed to The Independent in September that he had sent the email to Ms Stone saying he had heard unsubstantiated rumours she was seeking a peerage in return for letting MPs off the hook.
The MP said at the time he stood by his queries. “I was told she had been putting it about, looking for an honour,” he told this newspaper. “She didn’t deny it and merely said she always acts impartially.”
Ms Stone’s office investigation into Mr Bridgen found he broke the rules by failing to declare a relevant interest in Mere Plantations in eight emails to ministers.
The MP was found to have received three registrable benefits from Mere Plantations: a contract for an advisory role, a trip to Ghana in August 2019, and a donation of £5,000 to the North West Leicestershire Conservative Association on 31 October 2019 by the company.
The committee said Mr Bridgen should have told ministers and officials that he received a donation and a funded visit to Ghana from the Cheshire-based firm – and also had a £12,000 contract to be an adviser.
But he was found to have committed a “significant litany of errors” by failing to do so in eight emails to ministers, and in five meetings with ministers or public officials.
His correspondence with ministers included emails to Kwasi Kwarteng when he was business secretary in February 2021 and then-financial secretary to the Treasury Jesse Norman in August that year.
The committee report stated: “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.”
In his oral evidence, Mr Bridgen said that he decided in 2020 not to take payment from Mere Plantations. He also told the commissioner and the committee that he never undertook the duties under the contract, and that the role, in effect, never started.
But Mr Bridgen did not revoke or repudiate the contract, and the committee concluded that Mr Bridgen’s dealings in relation to the contract were “a mishandling of the conflict of interest of which he was aware”.
Mr Bridgen said on Thursday that he was “extremely disappointed” with his recommended suspension but said he accepted committee’s findings. “Whilst I am extremely disappointed with the recommendations of the committee, I accept them and will comply with them as required to do so.”
MPs will be asked to vote on the recommeded suspension for Mr Bridgen, but the punishment is likely to pass following the furore over the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal.
Boris Johnson sparked a Tory rebellion when he tried to get his own MPs to vote against punishment for Mr Paterson for repeatedly breaking lobbying rules. The former PM later admitted it was “a total mistake” to try to stop the punishment.
