Ex-MP 'should have apologised' for loan breach

Andrew Bridgen was expelled from the Conservative Party in April 2023

A former MP should have apologised to MPs over a late declaration relating to a loan totalling more than £4m, Parliament's standards watchdog has said.

Andrew Bridgen, the ex-member for North West Leicestershire, received payments totalling £4,470,576 between 12 October 2020 and 18 December 2023, which were declared on 19 December 2023.

Parliament's standards commissioner found that failing to register all of them within a 28-day timeframe amounted to an "inadvertent" breach of the MPs' code of conduct.

Mr Bridgen said he had not registered the funds from businessman and Reclaim Party donor Jeremy Hosking because they were to pay for a "strictly private" matter rather than political purposes.

The watchdog said the "donations were a registrable interest" because the two men were associated through political connections and because the interest and repayment-free terms made it a financial benefit.

The first payment was registered 1,135 days late, the commissioner said.

In a report published on Thursday, Parliament's Standards Committee said it hoped Mr Bridgen would "behave honourably and acknowledge that he was wrong, even if honestly wrong, to believe that the £4.47m... was not a registrable interest".

The report added: "We agree with the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards that he should have apologised to the House.

"The purpose for which the money was provided was private and personal. Mr Bridgen's relationship with a political donor nonetheless raised sufficient reason to make such donations a matter for registration."

Family potato business

Responding to the report's conclusions, Mr Bridgen said: "The committee concluded that I should apologise to the House.

"I believe that the House of Commons should apologise to the people for promoting the experimental vaccines as being 'safe and effective'.

"For legal reasons I am not able to elaborate on the situation regarding Mr Hosking but all will be revealed over the coming years."

The former MP believed he was being unfairly pursued by the standards watchdog following his decision to criticise the Covid-19 vaccine.

In May 2023, he joined the Reclaim Party, which was founded by actor Laurence Fox and heavily funded by Mr Hosking, who has donated more than £2m to the party.

Mr Bridgen did register other donations from the businessman, which he regarded as directly related to his parliamentary work, but said staff and colleagues had agreed with him that the loan was "purely private".

The purpose of the funds was to cover legal fees in relation to a civil case involving Mr Bridgen's brother and other shareholders in their family potato business, the committee's report said.

Mr Bridgen resigned from Reclaim in December 2023 after becoming the party's first MP.

He lost his seat after standing as an independent candidate in the 2024 general election.