Rishi Sunak warns MPs will have to justify donations amid new revelations

Rishi Sunak has warned MPs will have to “justify” their political donations to their constituents following the latest round of revelations.

Politicians “should be in no doubt that the public will pay close attention”, Downing Street also said.

Amid concerns over a lack of transparency and where some of the money flowing into Westminster is coming from, the prime minister also warned MPs must keep to the rules on earnings outside parliament. The accounts show Theresa May is one of the highest earners in parliament, alongside shadow foreign secretary David Lammy, despite Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s opposition to MPs second jobs.

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Campaign group Spotlight on Corruption described the Westminster Accounts as a “real wake-up call to the UK political establishment” after questions were raised about the source of some donations.

Some businesses had donated significant amounts to MPs despite having no employees or operating from apparently empty offices, Sky News reported.

The ‘Westminster Accounts’ is a new searchable database of MPs’ outside earnings and donations, launched by Sky News and the Tortoise news website.

Among other revelations their investigation found that the government of Qatar and a low profile business in Hertfordshire are among the biggest donors to individual MPs since 2019, the time of the last general election.

Asked if it was right that "companies that don't seem to exist" could donate to MPs, Mr Sunak said: "I think transparency is really important for the healthy functioning of democracy, it's absolutely right that there's disclosures around donations and outside interests. Transparency is a good thing. I fully support it."

Speaking in West Yorkshire, he added: "That's why we have a set of rules and regulations in place to provide that transparency for people. It's important that those rules are adhered to."

Asked about companies which appear on the register, No 10 said that “every member of parliament is required to disclose their donations and should be a no doubt that the public will pay close attention to that and they will obviously need to justify that to their constituents.”

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Donations to MPs are often used to run their offices and go towards campaigning or staffing.

But MPs also have to declare gifts and hospitality.

Two of the country’s largest unions, Unite and the GMB, top the list of the biggest donors.

The third-biggest overall donor to individual MPs, MPM Connect Ltd, is a company registered to an office in Hertfordshire with no website and, according to its accounts, no employees.Sky also reported that MPM Connect Ltd gave a total £345,217 to three high-profile Labour MPs - shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper (£184,317), shadow health secretary Wes Streeting (£60,900) and former mayor of South Yorkshire Dan Jarvis (£100,000).

Ms Cooper later clarified that the money came from a long-standing Labour donor, who also used to give money to the Conservative Party.

Her spokesperson said: "MPM Connect is an investment company in the employment sector owned by Peter Hearn, a UK businessman and long-standing Labour supporter, and as has been reported many times, “Mr Hearn kindly donates money to fund Yvette’s office staff and has done so for many years. It has all been fully declared and compliant with all the rules. Like lots of companies MPM Connect is registered to their accountant’s office, as is made very clear in its Companies House entry."

The government of Qatar is the fourth-biggest donor. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave a total of £249,932.16 worth of benefits in kind, Sky reported.

The Westminster Accounts cover the period since the 2019 general election and show former prime minister Theresa May is the highest-earning MP, receiving £2.8 million in payments and gifts.

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Most of this income relates to Mrs May’s speaking engagements, which her entry in the MPs’ Register of Interests states are paid to the Office of Theresa May Ltd and used to pay for staff and charitable work.

The register also states Mrs May receives £85,000 per year from her private office.

Second on the list of highest-earning MPs is former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox, who has received £2.1 million in outside earnings and gifts since 2019.

Sir Geoffrey was criticised in 2021 for using a proxy to vote in the House of Commons while he was working on a public inquiry in the British Virgin Islands.

Former prime minister Boris Johnson is third on the list, having received £1.2 million since December 2019, including more than £1 million in speaker’s fees since he left Downing Street in September 2022.

Mr Jarvis said the money had been used to help run his offices in Barnsley and Westminster and “to provide a better service to my constituents”. He said all donations received were registered with House of Commons authorities, in accordance with the rules, that details regarding MPM Connect and its director Peter Hearn available on Companies House. The address listed was “ that of MPM Connect’s accountants, as is common practice,” he added.