{"id":3345,"date":"2020-12-22T10:43:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T10:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=142184"},"modified":"2020-12-22T10:43:29","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T10:43:29","slug":"revealed-prominent-tory-mp-faces-calls-for-investigation-over-lobbying-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/22\/revealed-prominent-tory-mp-faces-calls-for-investigation-over-lobbying-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealed: Prominent Tory MP faces calls for investigation over lobbying ties"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In March 2019, Bridgen requested a meeting with Harriett Baldwin MP, previously the Minister of State for Africa at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Two months later, Baldwin met with Bridgen, a number of board members of Mere Plantations, and the director of a company based in Bridgen\u2019s constituency, the Curious Guys, which describes itself as a \u201ctax planning\u201d service<\/a> whose interests include teak.<\/p>\n

The group was invited to present their work on the teak plantation in Ghana, according to a blog post on the Curious Guys\u2019 website<\/a>. openDemocracy’s Freedom of Information requests to DfID about the meeting with Baldwin were passed to the Cabinet Office\u2019s controversial Clearing House.<\/p>\n

Very good trees<\/h2>\n

In August 2019, Mere Plantations paid \u00a33,300 for Bridgen to travel to Ghana to visit the teak plantations. \u201cThey flew me out to show me the trees. I saw 10,000 acres of very good trees,\u201d Bridgen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went and had a meeting at our High Commission in Accra and asked why I had to fly out there and sort out something that the business attach\u00e9 should sort out,\u201d he added. The trip to Ghana was apparently endorsed<\/a> by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Trade.<\/p>\n

Mere Plantations participated in a roundtable convened by Andrea Leadsom to \u201cdiscuss EU Exit\u201d in October 2019, according to transparency logs<\/a>. The following month, Bridgen\u2019s North West Leicestershire Conservative Party accepted a \u00a35,000 donation from the timber company.<\/p>\n

In January 2020 according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, Bridgen wrote to then international development secretary Alok Sharma, saying \u201cFurther to our discussion, could we arrange a meeting with Mark Hogg of Mere Plantations at your earliest convenience.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meeting with Sharma in February 2020, Hogg requested DfID\u2019s help to approach HMRC \u201cto ensure more appropriate UK tax treatment for this kind of investment\u201d. DfID noted that investors are currently taxed at 45 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlok Sharma offered Mere money. They don\u2019t need money,\u201d Bridgen told openDemocracy. \u201cThis is a very sustainable business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey employ 700 Ghanians. They have built a school, a creche, a medical centre. All paid for by Mere out there. They have not had any aid money. No money from our government. Indeed they have had nothing but not help from our government and that\u2019s what is wrong and that\u2019s why I went out [to Ghana in August 2019].\u201d<\/p>\n

Lobbying rules<\/h2>\n

In May 2020, according to his entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, Bridgen became a director of Mere Plantations, adding: \u201cI will be paid \u00a312,000 a year for an expected monthly commitment of 8 hrs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bridgen\u2019s incorrect listing as a director of Mere Plantations has been on the register for six months. Under the House of Commons Code of Conduct<\/a>, MPs must register any relevant interests “conscientiously”.<\/p>\n

The code also states that Members of Parliament must not engage in lobbying which would have the effect of conferring a financial benefit to an organisation from which the MP has received \u2013 or expecting to receive – a reward or consideration. The only exception for this rule is if an MP has \u201cevidence of a serious wrong or substantial injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cParliament\u2019s rules are clear that MPs should scrupulously avoid any arrangement in which they lobby in return for remuneration. Those elected to the House of Commons are there to serve as representatives of their constituents, not lobbyists for companies,\u201d said Transparency International\u2019s senior research manager Steve Goodrich.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is clear evidence of a parliamentarian failing to comply with the ban on paid advocacy the Commissioner for Standards should be able to investigate as a matter of priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s Shadow Cabinet Office minister Helen Hayes said: \u201cThis is a deeply troubling story \u2013 but unfortunately it is just another page in this government\u2019s catalogue of cronyism and opacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need urgent improvements in transparency and answers from the government on how they will restore public trust and confidence and address conflicts of interest – both real and perceived.\u201d<\/p>\n

SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes said: \u201cThis sort of thing is happening all too often, and it seems increasingly like we are entering into a new golden age of clientelism and cronyism \u2013 whether it be in planning, PPE procurement, or plantations.\u201d<\/p>\n

A veteran Eurosceptic, Bridgen also said that he would not back a Brexit deal if it had to be voted on before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no way I am going to be trying to digest a thousand pages of legal text and vote on it by January 1. That is not going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bridgen added that there \u201cwas not any time to get a deal through\u201d before the Brexit deadline and instead suggested that both the UK and the EU could agree to ratify any agreement in the New Year.<\/p>\n

In an email exchange last week, Mere Plantations\u2019s boss Mark Hogg said he could not respond to openDemocracy\u2019s questions by the stated deadline as he was in Ghana. Andrew Bridgen denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March 2019, Bridgen requested a meeting with Harriett Baldwin MP, previously the Minister of State for Africa at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Two months later, Baldwin\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3346,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3345\/revisions\/3346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}