The Commons sleaze commissioner Kathryn Stone has ruled that Conservative MP Crispin Blunt breached the Members’ code of conduct by failing to register 10 payments totalling £20,833.30 – in his role as Director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians – within 28 days of receipt.

In her judgement published last night, Stone gave Blunt a slap on the wrist for his negligence, accepting the breaches were “inadvertent” and not “deliberate“:

“…it is my view that Mr Blunt failed to register the ten payments that he received between 29 August 2021 and 1 June 2022 for his role as Director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians within the 28-day deadline set by the House. This amounts to a breach of paragraph 14 of the Code of Conduct for 25 Members. When making my decision, I took into account the explanations provided by Mr Blunt, and accept that the failure to submit a form notifying the Registrar of Members’ Financial Interests of his regular payments was an oversight on his part. I found that, based on the information available to me, the breaches were inadvertent, and that there was no deliberate attempt to mislead.”

Stone let Blunt off with a written acknowledgement and apology. Oops.