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Former Conservative Minister Jonathan Aitken received a parliamentary pass of grace and favor despite the House of Commons claiming ex-MPs jailed for more than a year were ineligible.
The passes allow former MPs unaccompanied access to the parliamentary estate even after they have ceased to serve their constituencies.
The Commons were forced to give details of how many times ex-MPs had accessed the property after the information commissioner warned that the pass system appeared to be so deregulated that it risked being vulnerable to misuse.
When asked for comment, a House of Commons spokesperson insisted this was wrong and referred to the rule on criminal convictions. “Former member passes are not issued to any member convicted of a crime and sentenced to a prison term of one year or more,” said a spokesman.
However, data released to The Guardian revealed that Aitken, 78, used a pass during the period from July 2018 to June 2019. Public lists of former MPs with passes indicate that he has had the pass continuously. since at least December 2015.
Aitken’s political career ended in 1999 when he was jailed for 18 months after admitting to perjury and perverting the course of justice during a failed attempt to sue The Guardian for defamation. He had been Thanet’s Conservative MP in Kent for 23 years.
When asked why Aitken had been granted a pass in light of his prison sentence, the Commons spokesman said former spokesman John Bercow had decided to ignore the rule in Aitken’s case because his sentence had been exhausted. .
“With regard to Mr. Aitken, the then president considered that since his sentence had been exhausted, Mr. Aitken should receive a former member pass,” he said. Neither Aitken nor Bercow responded to requests for comment.
Last week, The Guardian reported that former MPs had used grace and favor passes more than 2,500 times in a single year, some having used them dozens of times.
Stewart Jackson, Conservative MP from Peterborough from 2005 to 2017, accessed the parliamentary estate 82 times between July 2018 and June 2019. Jackson, who worked for the lobbying firm Crosby Textor for part of this period, did not respond to questions. about the purpose of your visits.
The Commons initially argued that data protection considerations meant that information should be withheld from the public. However, the information commissioner, which regulates the freedom of information and data protection law, ordered that it be disclosed.
“Given that the evidence suggests that several of the pass holders are employees of lobbying or public relations firms, there is legitimate concern about how those passes are being used,” the Information Commissioner’s Office said in a decision notice. “While the commissioner is not aware of any evidence to suggest widespread misuse of passes, she does believe that the current system is vulnerable to abuse.”
On Monday, the Public Relations and Communications Association, a professional body for public relations officials, said it was unacceptable for any lobbyist to have a parliamentary pass and echoed calls by transparency activists for the system to be reviewed. .
“It is simply wrong for a lobbyist to have a parliamentary pass, and that certainly applies to ex-MPs,” Liam Herbert said on behalf of the group. “We urge the parliamentary authorities to urgently review their rules and remove the parliamentary passes of former deputies who are now lobbyists. Parliament is not a club of membership for life, it is the body that makes the law of our country.
