Cardiff West MP Kevin Brennan has been a keen member of the DCMS committee, especially with regard to lobbying for more government intervention with regard to music streaming. Brennan was praised by the Musicians’ Union for “excellent interventions” and being “extremely strong on the MU’s three main asks”. What the Committee wasn’t told is that the union praising him for delivering their lines had paid him £4,000 in 2019…

The only payments Brennan declared at the start of the Committee hearing were “occasional payments for working as a musician, which are declared in the Register of Members’ Interests”. Brennan, who has declared he is a member of the Musicians’ Union, has failed to declare his substantial and recent donation in any hearings so far, despite pushing the union’s line as part of a co-ordinated campaign. The Musicians’ Union even acknowledged having briefed Brennan for the debate.

While Brennan has declared the donation in his register of interests, MPs are required to also declare relevant interests at hearings where it’s on a related topic. Brennan, who has been an MP for twenty years, will have known the rules. Not least because fellow Labour MP Stephen Doughty, who was also praised by the Union, followed the rules and declared his Musicians’ Union donations…