MP Tim Farron accepts £50,000 donation declarations breached code

Tim Farron was found to have broken parliamentary standards by failing to declare four donations in time

MP Tim Farron has apologised after breaking standards rules by failing to declare more than £57,000 of donations within the proper time limit.

Faith in Public, a religious think-tank the MP started, made donations worth £48,000 while a refugee group paid for a £9,000 adviser.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found he failed to register them within the 28-day time limit.

The Westmorland and Lonsdale MP said he would "ensure" it did not happen again.

Commissioner Kathryn Stone investigated after a complaint from a member of the public.

The complainant said the donations, which included the services of a public relations company worth £14,400, two policy advisers worth £22,918 and an intern worth £11,368, were made in March, April and September 2020 but were not registered until 19 February this year.

The commissioner also found a donation made by The Refugee, Asylum and Migration Policy Project (Ramp) of an adviser worth £9,100 on 1 January 2021 was not declared in time.

'Out of action'

Mr Farron said Faith in Public and Ramp had supported him "for a number of years" but the latest declarations were "due at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic" when "we were being deluged with huge volumes of correspondence from constituents while also trying to set the team up to work remotely".

The former Liberal Democrat leader also said he was "out of action" for between two and three weeks with suspected coronavirus, adding: "We clearly just lost track of when the declarations had been made up to and when they needed renewing."

The commissioner said a referral to the Standards Committee was "not necessary" as Mr Farron had apologised, rectified the delay and agreed for the donations to be added to the register.