MP sleaze watchdog not investigating Geoffrey Cox's use of his parliamentary office to work on his 2nd job, reports say

November 30, 2021

MP sleaze watchdog not investigating Geoffrey Cox's use of his parliamentary office to work on his 2nd job, reports say

Sir Geoffrey Cox is to face no investigation for using his parliamentary office to do his second job.
Cox used the taxpayer-funded office to contribute via Zoom to a Caribbean anti-corruption inquiry.
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards isn't opening an investigation, the Telegraph and BBC reported.

Sir Geoffrey Cox is to face no investigation by Parliament's standards commissioner into his use of his Commons office for his legal work, reports say.

The Labour Party had referred Cox, a Conservative MP and former Attorney General, to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after The Times of London reported he had used his Westminster office to take part in an anti-corruption inquiry in the British Virgin Islands via Zoom. Cox has a lucrative job as a barrister in addition to his role as an MP.

Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said Cox had "brazenly" broken the rules by using "a taxpayer-funded office in parliament to work for a tax haven facing allegations of corruption." Cox has denied breaking any rules.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, decided not to open an investigation into Cox, as first reported on Monday by The Telegraph's "Chopper's Politics Newsletter."

The BBC's "World at One" programme confirmed the story on Tuesday, citing Cox himself.

Stone decided there was insufficient evidence to justify an inquiry, and that the rules on the use of offices needed to be operated with a "sense of proportion," the BBC reported.

The livestreamed Caribbean inquiry showed Cox in an office that appeared to be one on the Parliamentary estate, and at one stage Cox referred to the division bell going off, which summons MPs for votes.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters at the COP26 summit that "the most important thing is those who break the rules must be investigated and should be punished."

Cox had previously been found in breach of the rules. In 2015, he referred himself to the standards commissioner after failing to declare thousands of pounds of outside earnings.

As part of his contributions to the British Virgin Islands inquiry, Cox told officials of the "real drawbacks" to public registers of interests for legislators.

Cox and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Business Insider