Labour grandee Dame Margaret Hodge was ordered to apologise to MPs today after she broke rules by carrying out a paid inquiry in her Commons office.
Dame Margaret took a £9,500 fee for her review into the controversial Garden Bridge project, which she carried out for London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Using Commons property, stationary or equipment for paid non-Commons business is a breach of the MPs code of conduct.
The Standards Committee ordered an apology today, acknowledging the sums for stationary and phones were ‘very small’ but pointing out the veteran MP should have known better.
Labour grandee Dame Margaret Hodge was ordered to apologise to MPs today after she broke rules by carrying out a paid inquiry in her Commons office
The Barking MP, who became prominent as a scourge of wrong-doers in her former role as chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, told the committee she was not aware she was committing a breach.
But it said the offence was aggravated by the fact that she allowed her parliamentary office to be used as many as 20 times for the review.
The committee found she ‘did nothing to prevent the impression being given that her work on the review was conducted on behalf of, or in some way connected with, the House of Commons’.
Although the work on the review was initially expected to be unpaid, Dame Margaret later accepted payment for it without seeking the advice of Commons authorities, the report found.
Dame Margaret took a £9,500 fee for her review into the Garden Bridge project, which she carried out for London Mayor Sadiq Khan
The committee, which includes MPs and lay members, said: ‘We conclude that the appropriate sanction for Dame Margaret’s breach of the Code of Conduct is that she should make an apology for this breach on a point of order on the floor of the House.’
Dame Margaret said in response to the report: ‘I am extremely sorry that I inadvertently breached parliamentary rules. I carried out this inquiry in good faith and in the public interest.
‘I think all MPs would benefit from greater clarity in the rules governing the use of offices.’
The Garden Bridge was a project backed by the previous Mayor Boris Johnson.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan commissioned Dame Margaret to undertake the review and the London Assembly paid her £9,500 for the work
Plans for the tree-lined crossing across the Thames between Temple and the South Bank collapsed in acrimony earlier this year after taxpayer support was pulled out.
London Assembly member Andrew Boff, who lodged the original complaint, said: ‘Today’s verdict leaves a sour taste. Sadiq Khan has paid his friend Dame Margaret Hodge £9,500 of taxpayers’ money to conduct a review in which she committed a serious breach of the Parliamentary Code of Conduct.
‘As an MP of over 20 years’ experience and a former chair of the Public Accounts Committee it seems hard to believe she was unaware of the rules.
‘An honourable politician would consider compensating the taxpayer for the costs she avoided by using Parliamentary resources for free. Instead she has offered a dismissive £3.
‘The London Assembly was forced to summons transcripts of Dame Hodge’s interviews when the Mayor refused to produce them. This latest lack of transparency casts an even greater shadow over the whole process.’