Welsh MP under investigation for possible lobbying breach

Labour frontbencher Alex Davies-Jones is under investigation for a possible breach of lobbying rules.

Commons Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg has launched an inquiry into whether the shadow culture minister broke the MPs’ code of conduct with “paid advocacy”.

MPs who receive a payment or other benefits such as hospitality or gifts must not use their position in Parliament to benefit the company which gave it to them.

Ms Davies-Jones, who has represented the Welsh constituency of Pontypridd since 2019, was understood to have referred herself to investigators and is cooperating fully.

She received a trip to Tokyo, Japan, valued at nearly £3,000 paid for by the British Council last autumn.

On November 8, the day after returning, she brought up the trip in the House of Commons, praising the Council’s “brilliant work” in “educating people in our English language and using our arts and culture for the greatest good”.

She asked Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan: “What more can the Government do to support the British Council, not just in Japan, but across the world?”

Labour was not suspending Ms Davies-Jones from her frontbench position because the party believes any breach of the rules would be minor and inadvertent.