Two MPs have admitted to using their Commons offices for a paid non-parliamentary meeting amid a deepening controversy about MPs taking on additional employment.
Liberal Democrat Layla Moran and Conservative Crispin Blunt attended a panel discussing political prisoners in Saudi Arabia remotely from their offices, despite Commons rules stipulating that MPs must not use the parliamentary facilities for non-parliamentary work.
The event, which took place last November, was organised by law firm Bindmans LLP, and saw Moran receive £3,000 and Blunt receive £6,000, according to the register of MPs’ financial interests.
Moran, who represents Oxford West and Abingdon, apologised for using her Commons office in Portcullis House and said she “deeply regretted” it. The Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson said in a statement: “With MPs from other parties, I worked on the detention of political prisoners in Saudi Arabia with Bindmans.
“I deeply regret that I ‘Zoomed’ in for one meeting from my office in parliament when Covid restrictions were in place. I take full responsibility for this and it will not happen again.”
The two MPs had been participating in a “fact-finding panel” on the conditions in Saudi Arabia of the former crown prince Muhammad bin Nayef and prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, who were detained last year.
Blunt told BBC News he did not consider that there would be an issue with using his office for the meeting at no cost to the taxpayer, but that he would accept the conclusion of any investigation by the parliamentary standards commissioner if a complaint was made.
The Conservative MP told the broadcaster that he thought the media were subjecting MPs to an “absurd feeding frenzy” over the issue of second jobs – a topic that has dominated the news cycle since Conservative MP Owen Paterson, who has since resigned, broke lobbying rules when working as a consultant.
It also comes after the Times newspaper revealed that the former attorney-general Sir Geoffrey Cox, who was moonlighting as a lawyer for the British Virgin Islands (BVI), participated in a court hearing in the BVI virtually from parliament.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, called for an investigation into Cox, describing it as a “brazen breach of the rules”. The former attorney-general denies breaking the rules by using the Commons for his legal work.
Cox earned at least £6m from his second job since he entered parliament, a Guardian analysis revealed this week, while records show that he skipped 12 recent votes on days when he was doing paid legal work.
