By Tony O’Reilly-
Former health secretary Matt Hancock is among three MPs who have been placed under investigation by parliament’s standards watchdog.
It follows a series of inquiries launched by the commissioner, Daniel Greenberg.
Hancock is being investigated over allegations he broke the MPs’ code of conduct by “lobbying the commissioner in a manner calculated or intended to influence his consideration” of whether a separate breach had been committed. It is a new offence that was added to the latest version of the code, endorsed by MPs in December 2022.
Mr Hancock’s spokesman expressed shock and surprise about the investigation, and confirmed Mr Hancock had written to Mr Greenberg “in good faith” to offer evidence for an inquiry he is currently conducting, but did not offer further information.
“It’s clearly a misunderstanding and Matt looks forward to fully engaging with the commissioner to clear this up,” the spokesman added.
The former Health Secretary, notorious for breaching pandemic rules in 2021 when he was photographed kissing the then married Gina Colandangelo, was also said to have broken parliament rules by participating in ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’. for which he was paid a handsome £320k.
Hancock breached the government’s business appointment rules by not consulting the watchdog before appearing on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!, the chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) said at the time. Many complaints were made to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom about his inclusion in the programme, but they were not found to be legitimate.
Benton who was recently caught in an undercover sting operation showing a willingness to lobby on behalf of the gambling industry – is also facing a probe, as is Henry Smith, the Conservative MP for Crawley.
Mr Benton, the MP for Blackpool South, is under investigation over the use of his parliamentary email address, while Mr Smith is also being investigated – for his use of parliamentary stationery provided by the public purse.
has been accused of lobbying parliament’s standards commissioner “in a manner calculated or intended to influence his consideration of whether a breach of the code of conduct has occurred”.
Daniel Greenberg was appointed as the new independent standards commissioner last year and took over from his predecessor, Kathryn Stone, in January.
The standards commissioner is responsible for investigating any potential breaches of the House of Commons’ code of conduct, which governs how MPs should behave.
MPs are told in the code of conduct that “excepting modest and reasonable personal use, members must ensure that the use of facilities and services provided to them by parliament, including an office, is in support of their parliamentary activities, and is in accordance with all relevant rules”.
Henry Smith, a backbench Tory MP for 13 years, is also being investigated for an alleged breach of the rules on using taxpayer-funded stationery.