Another Tory joins the list of sleaze “suspects.” Brazen becomes an overused word. – Owl

Ben Quinn www.theguardian.com 

Iain Duncan Smith is facing questions over his £25,000-a-year second job advising a multimillion-pound hand sanitiser company after he chaired a government taskforce that recommended new rules benefiting the firm.

The MP and former Conservative party leader chaired the Task Force on Innovation, Growth, and Regulatory Reform, which reported back in May after he and two other MPs were asked by Boris Johnson to recommend ways of cutting supposed EU red-tape.

However, the fresh spotlight on moonlighting by MPs has now prompted questions about the taskforce’s recommendations that alcohol-free hand sanitisers should be formally recognised as suitable for use in the UK.

The taskforce said in its report: “Current guidelines in the UK on non-alcohol based hand sanitisers are unclear. As a result, there is confusion in industry and among consumers as to what products are safe and effective to use, and we may be unnecessarily limiting the range of sanitising products available.” It called on the government to review guidance “to place alcohol- and non-alcohol-based on a level playing field”.

Duncan Smith was a director of Byotrol between June 2009 and May 2010 and has previously declared share options. Both have been approached for comment.

Byotrol, which is based in Cheshire, said in August that its revenue almost doubled and its pre-tax profits rocketed by more than 600% following “exceptional demand” for its sanitising technologies due to the pandemic. It reported a revenue of £11.2m for the 12 months to 31 March, up from £6m the previous year.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “The prime minister needs to explain why he think it is justified for one of his MPs to be paid by a company that stands to benefit from a recommendation of a taskforce chaired by that same MP. This is exactly the kind of brazen conflict of interest that proves that the Conservatives think it is one rule for them and another for the rest of us.

“Did this MP declare an interest when these matters were discussed and reported on by the taskforce? Why is the prime minister failing to act over these glaring conflicts of interest?”

Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, said: “The informality of a government taskforce might seem like an agile way to develop new policy but without basic governance arrangements it provides an open door to vested interests. If those proposing a major reform [could] benefit from it financially, this should at least be a matter of public record and probably should be subject to independent review.”

The health sector featured prominently in the recommendations of the taskforce, which called for the ripping up of EU data protection laws and the system for clinical trials for drugs. Brexit afforded the UK a “one-off opportunity” to set out a bold new UK regulatory framework, it said.

Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, is one of a number of Conservatives who have been moonlighting in the health sector. As well as being retained by Byotrol, Duncan Smith is a member of the international advisory board of Tunstall Health Group, earning £20,000 a year for up to 30 hours of work on top of his basic annual MP’s salary of £81,932.

Others Tory MPs working in the healthcare sector – in some cases for companies that have benefited from lucrative Covid-19 contracts – include Steve Brine, a former junior health minister.

Brine works with Remedium Partners, a recruitment agency for the NHS, and also for Sigma Pharmaceuticals. NHS test and trace announced in May that Sigma would provide lateral flow device test kits to community pharmacies. Brine’s declaration in the register of members’ interests states that he is a “strategic adviser” to Sigma and receives £1,666 a month. “I am a strategic adviser to both, not a lobbyist,” he said.

Richard Fuller, the MP for North East Bedfordshire, earned £65,000 from a second job at venture capital firm Investcorp Securities Ltd, which included £30,000 for “consultancy work on the impact of Covid on portfolio companies”. Those companies included Cambio, a private health firm which secured a £63,000 NHS contract without competition from other providers.

Alun Cairns, the former Welsh secretary, took a job advising a science company, BBI Group, involved in Covid testing in July during a period when the government was under pressure to increase testing.

More allegations of sleaze.

From www.dailymail.co.uk :

‘Brazen’ Tory Grandee Sir Geoffrey Cox faces sleaze watchdog probe for using his taxpayer-funded Commons office to take private legal work… defending Caribbean government in fraud probe launched by the UK Foreign Office

Is this the smoking gun?

From www.thetimes.co.uk

On September 14, the day of the hearing in question [in the British Virgin Islands], MPs were debating the government’s plans for a new levy to fund health and social care. Cox did not contribute to the debate.

There were six votes on the issue over the course of the day, all of which Cox took part in in person. About two hours into the BVI hearing he left his desk for 20 minutes, later telling the hearing’s chairman: “Forgive my absence during some of the morning, I’m afraid the bell went off.” This was an apparent reference to the division bell that indicates when votes in the House of Commons are taking place.

The Foreign Office inquiry aims to establish whether there is evidence of “corruption, abuse of office or other serious dishonesty that has taken place in public office” in the BVI.

The hearing came the day after Cox’s sole contribution to a Commons debate in the almost two years since Johnson sacked him as attorney-general in February last year.

Boris has a habit of “bolting” hasn’t he? – Owl

Kate Nicholson www.huffingtonpost.co.uk 

Boris Johnson has travelled further than the circumference of the Earth to escape tough questions just in the last decade, according to Labour’s new findings.

The opposition party crunched the numbers behind the prime minister’s absences during key political moments since 2011 and came up with the staggering conclusion he had travelled a total of 26,529 miles to dodge awkward questions.

The world’s circumference is approximately 24,901 miles.

The prime minister is already under fire for refusing to face the Commons on Monday when MPs were debating the Conservatives’ attempts to overhaul the independent MPs’ watchdog.

Johnson claimed he had a prior commitment visiting a hospital in the north-east of England and that his train would not pull into London in time for the 4.30pm debate. 

His critics have been quick to point out how, only last week, he used a private jet to travel from Glasgow to London just to attend a private dinner with his friend. 

Still, this hospital visit on Monday amounts to 568 miles, to Newcastle and back.

When the UK was gripped by supply chain issues causing by the HGV driver shortage, the prime minister went on holiday to Costa del Sol – a 2,103 return trip.

The camping holiday he embarked upon during last year’s A-level drama – as the pandemic meant the regular university admission process went awry – saw the prime minister travel to Aberdeen and back for a 1,098 mile trip.

During the Iranian crisis last year when tensions rose between the US and the Middle Eastern country, Johnson decided to travel from London to St Vincent and Grenadines and back, a total of 8,550 miles.

When he was foreign secretary, he even avoided Heathrow’s third runway vote by jetting off to Kabul in 2018 – this was a 7,102 mile trip.

For the London riots in 2011, when Johnson was mayor of the capital city, he escaped to Toronto in Canada – another 7,108 mile return journey.

This is just the latest batch of criticism over the prime minister’s leadership skills this week – even rightwing newspapers such as the Daily Express and the Daily Mail have turned their front pages against him.

Johnson’s approval ratings have now slumped to a record low, according to a new Opinium poll for the Observer.

“Duty on sewerage undertakers to take all reasonable steps to ensure untreated sewage is not discharged from storm overflows.” No timetable, no list of penalties, no new teeth for the Environment Agency, it’s all “tbd”.

As reported in Monday’s Daily Express (double page spread under headline: “UK rivers ‘little better than open sewers’”) last year, sewage pumped or spilled into English rivers 403,171 times, up 38%  on 2019.

Dear Simon and Neil, under Boris Johnson’s government do you realise river pollution is getting worse? 

If you are committed to “improving water quality” (see Simon Jupp at reference) what are you actually going to do?

Or is it just: “Blah, Blah, Blah”? – Owl

Will Goddard sidmouth.nub.news

An Otter Valley councillor for Devon County Council has said that the government’s amendment to the Environment Bill feels more like ‘an attempt to pacify critics, rather than a meaningful attempt to clean up the rivers and sea’.

Her comments come after MPs passed a compromise last night (Monday 8 November) to disagree with a House of Lords plan to put a ‘duty on sewerage undertakers’ to make sure raw sewage is not dumped in rivers and coastal waters, and instead propose ‘a reduction of adverse impact of storm overflows’ and make it enforceable under a different Act.

East Devon MP Simon Jupp voted with the government, saying he was ‘committed to improving water quality in East Devon’.

DCC Cllr Jess Bailey (Ind., Otter Valley) said: “The extent of sewage discharged into rivers and the sea is horrifying. Sewage is discharged into the River Otter from many sites including sites at Honiton, Newton Poppleford and Fluxton for thousands of hours each year.

“This is putting our wildlife at risk and threatening the existence of the beavers. That is why I have written to the CEO of South West Water calling for action on their sewage discharges.

“The Government’s amendment … goes nowhere near far enough. It feels like more of an attempt to pacify critics, rather than a meaningful attempt to clean up the rivers and sea.

“I would want to see targets for clear up, time scales, penalties for offences and a duty on the Environment Agency to ensure compliance, none of which have been included. More needs to be done, urgently.”

You can read the section about storm overflows (pages 5-9) in the latest version of the Environment Bill here.

SEE ALSO: Sidmouth: ‘I am committed to improving water quality in East Devon’ – Simon Jupp MP