{"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":"
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 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 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>\nVery good trees<\/h2>\n
Lobbying rules<\/h2>\n