Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg is being investigated over £6m loan and Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross over outside earnings, Standards Commissioner says
- Jacob Rees-Mogg and Douglas Ross were added to the list of MPs that are under investigation by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone
- Labour had demanded Mr Rees-Mogg be investigated over a £6million loan
- Mr Ross referred himself to watchdog over undeclared income, reports say
Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg and Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross have become the latest MPs to face a standards probe.
Both were today added to the list of MPs that are under investigation by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone.
The decision to investigate Mr Rees-Mogg comes after Labour demanded an investigation into a £6 million loan that the party said he did not declare properly.
In November it was revealed that the Leader of the Commons could have breached parliamentary rules by not declaring £6 million in personal loans from his Cayman Islands-linked company.
Mr Rees-Mogg borrowed up to £2.94 million a year in ‘director’s loans’ from his UK-based Saliston Ltd between 2018 and 2020.
Mr Ross had referred himself to the standards watchdog over undeclared income, reports say.
Parliamentary rules require MPs to be ‘open and frank in drawing attention to any relevant interest’.
Jacob Rees-Mogg and Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross were today added to the list of MPs that are under investigation by Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone
Pictured: Douglas Ross on the sidelines as an assistant referee at Celtic Park, Glasgow
Although it does not explicitly cover director’s loans, the code of conduct requires directors to declare ‘taxable expenses, allowances and benefits’.
In the MPs’ Register of Interests, Mr Rees-Mogg disclosed himself as an ‘unremunerated director’ and shareholder of the firm, but did not say he had taken out the loans.
By using ‘director’s loans’ – classed by the Government as a taxable benefit – he was able to borrow the large sum at very low interest.
Mr Rees-Mogg had earlier insisted that as the loans were not earnings, he was not required to declare them to Parliament and he had not broken any rules.
He said the 2018 loan was ‘primarily’ used to buy and refurbish his £5.6 million home in Westminster. He would not say what the rest of the money was for.
It was revealed last month that Mr Ross, 38, had failed to declare more than £28,000 in earnings from other jobs.
The triple-jobbing MP failed to declare £28,218.57 in outside earnings from his second job as an MSP and third job as an assistant football referee, according to reports in The Herald.
Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives has been accused of being ‘knee-deep in the Tory sleaze scandal’ after he failed to declare more than £28,000 in earnings from other jobs
The undeclared income included £6,728.57 from 16 football matches in 2021 and 2020, and £21,490 in a top-up salary from his role as an MSP.
The outside earnings of MPs has faced intense scrutiny in recent months since the high-profile resignation of ex-minister Owen Paterson, who was found to have breached lobbying rules in his role as an MP.
Questions have been raised about top Tory figures, including Sir Geoffrey Cox, who earned around £900,000 last year as a lawyer, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson who has earned more than £4m from outside interests.
Speaking to the Herald, Mr Ross said: ‘Since realising my mistake… I contacted the Office of the Register of Interests and made them aware of the situation.
‘All payments have now been declared, including those from my MSP salary that are donated to charities.’
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