Tory Andrew Bridgen faces Commons suspension over lobbying

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen faces five-day Commons suspension for breaking lobbying rules – as he is also blasted for ‘completely unacceptable’ attempt to pressure Parliament’s standards commissioner into letting him off

Tory broke rules about paid lobbying ‘on multiple occasions and in multiple ways’
Also made ‘completely unacceptable’ attempt to pressure standards watchdog
Suggested his reputation as Boris Johnson critic could have influenced her

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen faces a House of Commons suspension after being found to have displayed a ‘cavalier’ attitude to the rules in a series of lobbying breaches.

The Standards Committee advised a suspension of five sitting days for the North Leicestershire MP for breaching rules on registration, declaration and paid lobbying ‘on multiple occasions and in multiple ways’.

He is said to have breached rules to help Mere Plantations, including approaching ministers and officials. This included six emails to ministers. He also accepted a trip to Ghana and £5,000 for his local Tory party branch, though he took no money directly.

The committee also hit out at a ‘completely unacceptable’ attempt by the North West Leicestershire MP to pressure Parliament’s standards commissioner into letting him off.

In a letter to Kathryn Stone he said he had heard an ‘unsubstantiated rumour’ she was accepting a peerage from Boris Johnson that was ‘dependent upon arriving at the ”right” outcomes when conducting parliamentary standards investigation(s).’

Mr Bridgen was a long-term critic of the former prime minister when he was in power.

In a report today the Standards Committee said: ‘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,’ a report said.

He 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.

Mr Bridgen, pictured with his singer wife Nevena, is said to have breached rules to help Mere Plantations, including approaching ministers and officials. This included six emails to ministers.

Mr Bridgen said he is ‘extremely disappointed’ with his recommended suspension but said he accepts the Standards Committee’s findings.

In a statement, the Tory MP said: ‘Whilst I am extremely disappointed with the recommendations of the committee, I accept them and will comply with them as required to do so.’

The Standards Committee said he 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: ‘I was distressed to hear on a number of occasions 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, potentially as soon as the Prime Minister’s resignation honours list.

‘There is also some suggestion amongst colleagues that those plans are dependent upon arriving at the ‘right’ outcomes when conducting parliamentary standards investigations.

‘Clearly my own travails with Number 10 and the former PM have been well documented and obviously a small part of me is naturally concerned to hear such rumours.

‘More importantly however 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 ‘appears to be an attempt to place wholly inappropriate pressure on the commissioner’ which is ‘completely unacceptable behaviour’.

The five-bedroom Old Vicarage in Coleorton, Leicestershire, comes with a sauna, swimming pool and 5.5 acres of land. Owned by family firm AB Produce, Bridgen and his wife lived in the property without charge from 2015 until their eviction last month

It is the latest blow to Mr Bridgen in recent months. In September he was evicted from a £1.5million property owned by his family’s firm – and ordered to pay out £800,000 in costs – after a dispute in which a High Court judge ruled that he ‘lied’ under oath.

Bridgen, 57, had been locked in a long legal wrangle with AB Produce, headed by estranged younger brother Paul, 55.

The MP was formerly a board member at the Derbyshire-based family business, which supplies vegetables to caterers, earning a second salary of £93,000 for attending monthly meetings.

Since 2015, he also lived rent-free in the five bedroom country house in Coleorton, Leicestershire, owned by the company, along with his wife Nevena, 42, and son. Bridgen previously owned the property himself but sold it to the family firm for £1.5million in 2012.

Bridgen insisted that he was forced out of his role at AB Produce and has spent years suing the business, The Times reports.

But a judge evicted Bridgen and ordered him to pay legal costs of £800,000 after finding that he had behaved in an ‘abusive’, ‘arrogant’ and ‘aggressive’ way.

Far from being forced out, Judge Brian Rawlings found that Bridgen had voluntarily stepped down from his board role in order to reduce his maintenance payments to his first wife, Jackie, after their divorce.

Judge Rawlings also found that Bridgen had pressurised a local police inspector to undertake an expensive one-year investigation against his younger brother, making vexatious allegations.

Bridgen and his family were given a deadline of August 24 to vacate the property, the Old Vicarage – understood to be valued at around £1.5million. While living in the 18th century home, which includes a sauna, swimming pool and 5.5acres of land, Bridgen also reportedly refused to rent or bills for water and electricity.

Bridgen Investments – a property company within the AB Produce portfolio – purchased the home from Bridgen for £1.5million in 2012, Land Registry documents show.

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