The Times reports: “In one exchange, he asked if they could help him “get the wording right”, which he could then “convert into parliamentary language”.
Tory MP George Freeman has become embroiled in a ‘cash for questions’ row, causing yet another headache for party leader Kemi Badenoch, as well as accusations that the party has failed to learn from its past following pervious allegations of corruption and sleaze.
The Times has revealed that Freeman asked the director at environmental monitoring company GHGSat “what to ask about” when submitting questions about the sector the firm operates in.
Freeman was previously advised by a government committee not to lobby the government on behalf of the firm due to his previous role as science minister.
The Times reports: “In one exchange, he asked if they could help him “get the wording right”, which he could then “convert into parliamentary language”.
“In some examples, the phrases used by the company’s director are copied word for word by Freeman in his submitted questions to ministers.”
Freeman is accused of breaking multiple rules set out in the MPs’ code of conduct, including lobbying on behalf of a private company he was paid by and using the parliamentary estate for his private business interests.
It also ought to be pointed out that Freeman had quit as a Tory minister under the last government because he claimed that he could not afford to pay his £2000 per month mortgage on a salary of £118,300.
Freeman says that he doesn’t believe he has done anything wrong but that he has referred himself to the parliamentary commissioner for standards and will ‘accept his judgment in due course.’
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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