A Tory MP should be suspended from the Commons for failing to declare outside paid work – then threatening to not hand the standards commissioner a peerage if she ruled against him, the Standards Committee has recommended
Andrew Bridgen should be suspended for five sitting days, the parliamentary committee that oversees the work of the standards commissioner said.
The committee found the MP had breached the Code of Conduct by making multiple approaches to ministers and public officials on behalf of Mere Plantations, a teak reforestation company based in Ghana for which he was initially being paid £12,000 a year as an adviser.
He also failed to register his interest in the company in the time frame stipulated by the code.
The committee also found Mr Bridgen had attempted to improperly influence the Standards Commissioner Kathryn Stone.
