“Don’t forget to bring your cheque book”: Virendra Sharma MP’s office breach Parliamentary rules
Posted on April 4, 2012The way MPs use their taxpayer-funded expenses and facilities is an area the public are understandably concerned about. The MPs’ expenses scandal was a disinfecting burst of sunshine into some pretty dingy corners of Westminster and led to a welcome clear-out of some representatives of the people who saw the rules merely as recommendations.
One element of the rules which is long-standing and extremely clear is that MPs’ Parliamentary resources (staff time, computers etc) is explicitly and solely for use in their Parliamentary duties. As the Members’ Handbook puts it:
“These facilities and services are provided in order to assist Members in their parliamentary work. They should be used appropriately, in such a way as to ensure that the reputation of the House is not put at risk. They should not be used for party political campaigning or private business activity.”
Apparently not all Members are so keen on this rule.
Last Wednesday, the following email was sent out by Julian Bell, researcher for Virendra Sharma MP, apparently to all members of their constituency Labour Party:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: BELL, Julian <BELLJG@parliament.uk>
Date: 28 March 2012 13:48
Subject: Dr Onkar Sahota’s GLA Campaign Launch – This Saturday 7 untill 10 pm at the Dominion Centre, The Green, Southall, UB2 4BQ
To: XXXXXX@XXXXXXX.XXX
Dear Member,
The Mayoral and GLA campaign has now entered the legal short stage and there are only 36 days to polling day on 3rd May. With their budget for millionaires and a Tory Councillor being suspended for a racist blog they really are the same old Tories. Tory Mayor Boris Johnson and Tory Deputy Mayor Richard Barnes are no different and there will be no better chance than now to kick them out of office.
In order to do just that and to launch Dr Onkar Sahota’s campaign for Ealing and Hillingdon we are holding a campaign launch and fundraising meeting this Saturday 31st March at 7 pm at the Dominion Centre, The Green, Southall, UB2 4BQ. Please come along and give Onkar your support. Bring along other Party members and enjoy an evening of politics, food, drink and socialising. Don’t forget to bring your cheque book.
Best wishes,
Steve Pound MP
John McDonnell MP
Virendra Sharma MP
Cllr Julian Bell
Cllr Mo Khursheed
—-
As you can see, it is from a Parliamentary email account, written by a Parliamentary researcher and yet is a highly partisan invitation to a party political election campaign event, which doubles as a party fundraiser. There can be no doubt this is a breach of the very clear rules of the House of Commons.I’ve always thought the MPs’ expenses scandal was unlikely to be the last we would see of MPs abusing their position – but I didn’t necessarily expect it to start again so soon. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is unlikely to be very pleased about this, I suspect.
Tags: Cllr Julian Bell, Cllr Mo Khursheed, Dr Onkar Sahota, Ealing, Ealing Southall, Ed Miliband, GLA, House of Commons, John McDonnell MP, Ken Livingstone, Labour, Labour Party, London, London Assembly, London Elections, London Mayor, London Mayoral Election, MLAs, MPs expenses, New Labour, opinion, Parliament, Politics, Socialism, Southall, Steven Pound MP, Virendra Sharma MP, Westminster
Categories: Exclusives, Politics, Westminster
The only clear-cut violation I see here is using a parliamentary email address – the rest just seems like speculation. Ie, I take my lunch 1-2pm – so could Julian be sending this in his own time?
In addition, as I use Thunderbird to manage several email accounts, I’ve been known to accidentally send mails from the wrong account. Unlikely, but possible.
I see where you’re coming from in this article, but I doubt there’s anything here that couldn’t just be explained away. I predict this will come to nothing.
02.04.2012 08:57
The use of the email is in itself a breach, and not a minor one, Chris. Furthermore, as the email is sent by Virendra Sharma’s researcher and signed by Virendra Sharma in his capacity as an MP it is pretty clear he is using his Parliamentary staff and resources to promote campaigning and fundraising.
02.04.2012 12:21
As I said, I see your point in the article. But I still don’t believe there’s any part of this story that can’t be explained away – however improbably the explanation is. No part of what you said can disprove a claim that “it was sent from this account by mistake” and “I was on lunch when I typed it out”. Slap on the wrists punishment, if that.
I’m not agreeing with it – but considering the evidence stacked up against, for example, Boris Johnson using taxpayer funded resources for his own gain (Adam Bienkov’s blog is a good source of info on these incidents), do you honestly believe this will go any further than your blog post?
Perhaps politics over the past 5 years has made me a cynic, but I just don’t believe in parliament enough to believe anything will be done about this.
02.04.2012 14:19
Even if you pushed the point that Sharma’s researcher who could be a Labour party member and used their own lunch time to write the email on behalf of Sharma et al, they are still using a parliamentary email address.
To say that it’s just a slip of the fingers doesn’t detract from the seriousness of the offence. It’s like saying “Officer, I’m sorry I gave the wrong details on my car tax form, it was slip of the finger, will you let me off?”.
Though I too am a cynic and don’t think anything other than a slap on the wrist will happen at worst. Groups look after their own and won’t rock the boat for what they see from their point of view as a minor offence.
02.04.2012 16:24
“To say that it’s just a slip of the fingers doesn’t detract from the seriousness of the offence. It’s like saying “Officer, I’m sorry I gave the wrong details on my car tax form, it was slip of the finger, will you let me off?”.”
There’s a big difference between me or you saying that to a policeman, and an MP saying that to a policeman. The difference being “no excuses” policies don’t usually apply to public figures, if past experience has taught me anything.
And besides, it’s not a great comparison. In the case of a parliamentary investigation, it’ll likely be an MP telling one of his mates that it was an accident and to let him off.
03.04.2012 10:27
You are scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one? desperate!
The Tory one would tell you to bring your granny along..to sell her..
02.04.2012 17:41
It is a good comparison. The equivelant in my example would be a off duty policeman saying it to his mate who then lets him off.
03.04.2012 15:17
By its very nature, this is abuse of faciities, and suggests that all concerned hold no respect for the priveleges they have.
This may only be a minor infringement, but the attitude suggests this is just the visible tip of other abuses which are hidden away.
With Parliamentary ethics already visibly below what should be expected of “everyone” at Westminster, it really is time for the House to start demonstrating to the world that they are capable of keeping their own house in ethical order.
After all, these are the people preaching to us, and telling us what we should be doing – they should be well above any misuse of privelege, petty or otherwise.
10.04.2012 06:47