Corbyn escapes punishment for failing to declare a trip to terrorists’ graveyard in Tunisia by insisting it cost £4 LESS than the £660 limit
- Corbyn was investigated over foreign trips he took while a backbench MP
- He escaped punishment over a 2014 visit to Tunisia after just meeting the rules
- The controversial trip cost just £4 below the minimum for declaring in public
- Labour leader apologised to the Standards watchdog over a 2014 New York visit
Jeremy Corbyn has escaped censure from the Commons Standards watchdog over a controversial Tunisia trip which saw him pictured holding a wreath near the graves of terror leaders – by coming in just £4 under budget.
Tory MPs referred the Labour leader to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for not declaring the 2014 trip where he was photographed close to the burial place of men linked to the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre.
But the Commissioner declined to take action after Mr Corbyn estimated the flights and accommodation, paid for by the Tunisian government, had cost £656.
Parliamentary rules state that MPs only have to declare trips that cost more than £660.
Jeremy Corbyn has escaped censure from the Commons Standards watchdog over a controversial Tunisia trip which saw him pictured holding a wreath near the graves of terror leaders – by coming in just £4 under budget. He is pictured during the trip at the Cemetery of the Martyrs of Palestine, Tunis
Mr Corbyn did issue an ‘unreserved apology’ after breaching expenses rules over a separate trip to New York in the same year.
His visit to the US, paid for by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, should have been registered with Commons officials immediately was only done so four years late.
In a report published yesterday, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards said: ‘The member acknowledged his breach of the rules and apologised unreservedly for it.’
In a letter to the commissioner, Mr Corbyn said: ‘There is one visit that should have been registered, but my office and I omitted to register, for which I take full responsibility – my April 2014 trip to the UN in New York to attend the Non proliferation of Nuclear weapons preparatory committee, funded by the campaign for nuclear disarmament.
‘The failure to register this visit was a complete oversight for which I apologise unreservedly.
Mr Corbyn did issue an ‘unreserved apology’ after breaching expenses rules over a separate trip to New York in 2014 that was not declared until November 2018
‘I can only imagine that we overlooked registration in this instance due to an incorrect assumption that the trip would be below threshold.
‘Most of my overseas trips and visits have been inexpensive and under the threshold for declaration.’
The Tunisia trip sparked furious controversy after The Daily Mail published a photograph showing him holding a wreath just feet away from the graves of terror leaders linked to the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre.
Mr Corbyn said he was ‘present’ but not ‘actually involved’ in a wreath laying on the terrorist’s grave and instead laid a wreath elsewhere in the same graveyard.