Michael Gove has been placed under investigation by parliament’s standards watchdog.
It relates to the housing secretary’s register of financial interests.
Further details will remain confidential until the inquiry is concluded – and those under investigation are barred from discussing the allegations.
Although the cause of investigation has not been published, last week the Guardian reported that Mr Gove did not register VIP hospitality he enjoyed at a football match with a Tory donor whose firm he had recommended for personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts with millions of pounds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The levelling up secretary enjoyed entertainment at a Queens Park Rangers match in 2021 with David Meller, whose company Meller Designs was awarded six PPE contracts worth £164m following Mr Gove’s referral, the newspaper reported.
A spokesperson for Mr Gove told the Guardian on Monday that his failure to declare the two free tickets was an “oversight” and that he had informed the parliamentary authorities about his own omission.
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Under the MPs’ code of conduct, members are required to register gifts, benefits and hospitality over a value of £300.
The investigation into Mr Gove takes the number of MPs who are being investigated by the standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, to six – all of whom are Conservative.
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Among those also subject of a probe by the commissioner are deputy speaker Dame Eleanor Laing, Sir Bernard Jenkin and Virginia Crosbie, who are alleged to have broken lockdown rules when they attended a birthday drinks during the pandemic.
The Metropolitan Police did not take any action against the three MPs when they closed closed their investigation into allegations last December.
Other Conservative MPs under investigation include Bob Stewart and Miriam Cates, who is facing claims that she has caused “significant damage to the reputation of the House as a whole, or of its members generally”.
MPs approved the suspension of Mr Benton without the need for a vote – known as going through on the nod – meaning Rishi Sunak could face another by-election in Blackpool South.
A recall petition is now open in the seat, and if 10% of constituents sign it, a by-election will be triggered.
Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Image: Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Image: Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Image: Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Image: Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.
The first European state visit since Brexit starts today as President Emmanuel Macron arrives at Windsor Castle.
On this episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy look at what’s on the agenda beyond the pomp and ceremony. Will the government get its “one in, one out” migration deal over the line?
Plus, which one of our presenters needs to make a confession about the 2008 French state visit?