A Conservative MP leaked a confidential report about regulating payday loans to Wonga, it has emerged.
Justin Tomlinson, who served on the Public Accounts Committee in 2013 before he was made a minister, sent a draft of the report to an employee of Wonga, who replied and suggested changes to it.
The report, released in May 2013, called for beefed up regulation of payday loan companies, including Wonga.
PAC chair Margaret Hodge at the time accused part of the payday loans industry of “disgraceful practices” and said existing rules had been ineffective.
BBC News reports that Mr Tomlinson, who is now disabilities minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, has the full confidence of Iain Duncan Smith and will not be sacked.
Research by the charity Scope has found that people with disabilities are significantly more likely to turn to payday loans than people without them.
18 per cent of people with disabilities have used so-called 'high cost' lending compared with 5 per cent of non-disabled people.
Mr Tomlinson has apologised and accepted that he had broken the rules.
He said that he sent the report to the payday loan company because he believed action needed to be taken on payday loan companies.
“I fully accept that I was responsible for sharing the draft report with a third party and wish to apologise unreservedly to the Committee,” he said in a letter to the committee.
“I accept that I allowed my judgment to be clouded by my strongly-held belief that action needed to be taken on payday lenders. I also accept that as a new member I should have taken advice about the limits placed on members of Parliament during committee inquiries.
“Nonetheless, I hope the Committee accepts that it was never my intention to interfere with the correct process of publishing a report I fully supported whilst a member and still do today. I reiterate my unreserved and full apology.”
Parliament’s Standard and Privileges Committee will now look at incident.
