The Lords Commissioner Standards has completed an investigation into Lord Alli’s potential breaches of conduct. It concludes there are four breaches:
“Finally, while I consider each individual breach of the Code to be minor, I have found there to be four breaches in total, and have therefore recommended that Lord Alli write a letter of apology to the Chair of the Conduct Committee, Baroness Manningham-Buller.”
Lord Alli’s apology:
“I am writing to you today to offer my apology for my breach of conduct by not registering my interests correctly. I will endeavour to keep to the Code of Conduct at all times to avoid such circumstances again.”
The breaches are explained:
- “Lord Alli should have included in his entry on the Register of Lords’ Interests his position as an unremunerated director of The Charlie Parsons Foundation, as well as his trusteeship. By not doing so he was in breach of paragraphs 14(a) and 17 of the Code of Conduct.”
- “I find that Lord Alli’s late registration of his interest as an unremunerated director of MAC (BVI) Limited breached paragraph 17 of the Code of Conduct.”
- “I find that Lord Alli should have maintained his entry in category 3 of the Register of Lords’ Interests as he remains on the Companies House register as a Person with Significant Control of Silvergate BP Bidco Limited.”
- “Similarly, I find that he should have maintained his registration in category 4(a) of his shareholding amounting to a controlling interest. By removing these register entries prematurely Lord Alli breached paragraphs 14(a) and 17 of the Code of Conduct.”
Read the full report below:
The Conservatives have written to the Standards Commissioner, calling for a full investigation into Keir Starmer’s failure to disclose donations from Lord Waheed Alli. This comes after it emerged Starmer failed to declare the fact Alli footed the £5,000 bill for Starmer’s wife, Lady Vic, to indulge in a personal shopper and have her dresses and clothes altered. Potentially a serious breach of parliamentary rules…
Starmer, who previously reminded the Tories in 2021 of the need to declare donations within 28 days, now stands accused of not practicing what he preached. So much for his claims of governing with integrity, honesty, and promising to “clean up” politics…
Read the letter, written by a Conservative MP below:
An interesting nugget of skullduggery was unearthed by the Mail’s Martin Beckford yesterday, who examined the House of Lords report into the conduct of Lord Geidt. Co-conspirators will remember Geidt as the establishment standards supremo who – eager to demonstrate how beyond reproach he is – flounced out of Boris Johnson’s government after agreeing to advise it on standards. A resignation covered breathlessly by the media pack…
As it turns out, the report reveals that during Lord Geidt’s investigation into the No 10 flat, he was simultaneously working as an adviser to Theia group, which wanted to sell the MOD satellite technology. Just two days before Geidt published his report into the flat, he conducted a meeting with officials on behalf of Theia. The committee has now found his conduct in that meeting was a breach of Lords rules…
While the left and Johnson’s Tory critics raged over flatgate and canonized Geidt for his role, he was working as the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Interests while simultaneously working as a paid advisor to a defence company seeking government work. Who will independently advise the independent advisers…
As Guido reported a few weeks ago, investigations undertaken by the Standards Commissioner into lockdown partygoers Virginia Crosbie, Eleanor Laing, Bernard Jenkin and Miriam Cates have found that the allegations are not upheld. The report has been released today, just before recess tomorrow…
Despite finding that the WhatsApp “invitation to the event was accurately quoted by the media“, the Commissioner concluded that this was an socially distanced event with “both business and social elements“, and thus the four have been let off. The report also found that there was “wine (probably not exceeding two bottles) and ‘nibbles’ were available at the event”. A reminder: the invitation from Anne Jenkin began with “Virginia and I are have joint birthday party drinks” and signed off as “X anne“. Co-conspirators can decide whether that sounds professional…
Read the full report below:
In a WhatsApp’d invitation from Anne Jenkin a party during lockdown was described as “joint birthday drinks“. It was both Virginia Crosbie’s 54th and Anne Jenkin’s 65th birthdays on December 8, 2020. Why let a little thing like lockdown get in the way of having a party?
Today Guido learnt that the Standards Commissioner will report he has “insufficient evidence” that the event was a lockdown rule breaching party. In this Guido Talks podcast we cast our minds back to what we know about the birthday bash and tell the story behind the story. Co-conspirators can decide for themselves whether they think they broke the rules…
Guido has heard that the investigations undertaken by the Standards Commissioner into lockdown party-goers Virginia Crosbie, Eleanor Laing, Bernard Jenkin and Miriam Cates have been closed. The reports are expected to be publicly released in around two weeks time. Timed for just before recess…
The suspicion is that all four of the rule-breaking MPs will get off, and wanting to avoid an inevitable wave of outrage that will inevitably ensue, parliamentary authorities are waiting to release the report until everyone is off on their Easter holiday and it’s swept under the rug. Staff of the party-going MPs have been rather jubilant recently, presumably gleeful that it looks like their bosses have managed to get away with it…
The four were being investigated following Guido’s revelation that they attended a lockdown-breaking birthday bash on December 8th 2020. There were WhatsApp invites to the “joint birthday party” for Bernard Jenkin’s wife Anne and Virgina Crosbie. There was birthday cake. There was booze. This was clearly a party and not a work event, and it is an appalling case of “one rule for them and another rule for us” if they have been cleared…
