LONDON ̵1; Matt Hancock has been ordered to apologize to the House of Commons after writing an “unsolicited letter” in support of a fellow MP under investigation by Parliament’s standards watchdog.
A report by the Commons’ committee on standards found that the former UK health secretary – recently found eating animal appendages at a popular reality Show – Breached a “minor” code of conduct for MPs.
He has been asked to make a personal statement in Parliament to apologize to the House and the Watchdog – and attend a “briefing on his obligations” as an MP. Hancock will make a statement to Parliament later on Monday.
related search a separate lobbying investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner on Standards in Tory MP and former health minister Steve Brine.
The committee said that in March this year Hancock “sent an unsolicited letter to the commissioner” regarding Brine’s case. But Article 14 of the code of conduct for MPs prohibits lobbying of the commissioner “where the code of conduct has been breached or is calculated with intent to influence his opinion with regard to the imposition of sanctions.”
It pointed out that this rule of lobbying the standard watchdog is in force since 2009.
Now an independent MP after being stripped of the Conservative whip over his reality TV turn last November, Hancock is no stranger to Headlines,
Recently, an installment of his personal WhatsApp Came into Possession of the Daily Telegraph newspaper – after Hancock shared them with a journalist with whom he was writing a book.