SCOTTISH Tory MP David Mundell has joined the growing list of Conservatives under investigation by the parliamentary standards watchdog.
There are currently seven open investigations being looked at by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, all of which are into current or former Tory MPs.
On Monday, it was announced that standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg opened a probe into Rishi Sunak’s failure to declare a financial interest in a firm set to benefit from his government policy.
And now Mundell, a former Scottish secretary, has joined his party leader on the list.
The MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale is facing a less serious charge than Sunak, being probed for his “use of facilities [stationery] provided from the public purse”.
The commission is also currently carrying out an inquiry into Health and Social Care Committee chairman Steve Brine over claims he lobbied the head of the NHS on behalf of a firm for which he was working as a paid consultant.
Also being probed are Tory MPs Scott Benton – who had the whip suspended earlier this month after an undercover Times investigation allegedly showed him offering to lobby ministers on behalf of gambling investors in exchange for money – and Henry Smith, for the same alleged offence as Mundell.
Former cabinet minister Matt Hancock is under investigation for allegedly putting pressure on Greenberg as he considered a possible breach of the MPs’ code of conduct.
And Chris Pincher is also being investigated by the standards watchdog.
Pincher, the centre of a scandal which contributed to the downfall of former prime minister Boris Johnson, is being probed in relation to "actions causing significant damage to the reputation of the House as a whole, or of its members generally".
The formerly Tory MP, now an independent, quit as his party's deputy chief whip following claims he groped two men at the upmarket Carlton Club, but it emerged Johnson knew about allegations against him as far back as 2019.
