Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen should be suspended from the Commons for breaking 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 company from whom he had received “registrable financial benefits”, the Committee on Standards found.
The cross-party committee advised a suspension of five sitting days for breaching rules on registration, declaration and paid lobbying “on multiple occasions and in multiple ways”.
Its 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.”
The MP was recommended for suspension for two days for breaches of two sections of the MPs’ code of conduct and a further three sitting days for an “unacceptable attack upon the integrity” of the standards commissioner Kathryn Stone.
Ms Stone’s office investigation into Mr Bridgen found he broke the rules by failing to declare a relevant interest in Mere Plantations in six 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 also found that Mr Bridgen had called Ms Stone’s “integrity into question” on the basis of “wholly unsubstantiated and false allegations, and attempted improperly to influence the House’s standards processes”.
Mr Bridgen questioned whether his reputation as an outspoken critic of then prime minister Boris Johnson could have influenced her findings.
The MP wrote an email to Ms Stone saying he was distressed to hear “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 added: “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 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”.
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