Scott Benton suspended: isn’t this double-standards after the Led By Donkeys sting?
Scott Benton: what he offered to do was wrong, but no different from other Tory MPs. So why has he been singled out?
It seems Led By Donkeys is not the only organisation that has been trying to entrap MPs by creating fake firms for them to represent by illegal lobbying.
The Times has apparently tried to net Tory MP Scott Benton by the same means – and unlike Kwasi Kwarteng, Sir Graham Brady, Stephen Hammond and Gavin Williamson, he has been suspended by the party pending an investigation.
This seems very odd.
Benton referred himself to Parliament’s standards watchdog and had the whip removed by his party shortly afterwards. It seems The Times had filmed him saying he could table Parliamentary questions and leak a Parliamentary policy paper, if he took a job with the fake firm.
But he did not pursue the role and it seems no rules have been broken.
This seems no different from the behaviour of three of the five MPs who were approached by Led By Donkeys. They did not have apparent concerns about being used as conduits for a firm to talk to ministers. Another, who said he could not lobby directly, said there was a way around the rules.
Only one refused to have anything to do with behaviour that might be used to attempt to influence government policy.
To This Writer’s knowledge, none of them have been referred to the Parliamentary standards watchdog or been suspended from their party whip (although, in Matt Hancock’s case, this would be difficult as he has already been suspended).
Why is he being investigated and not them?
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