Just the free ticket for Midland MPs

WEST Midlands MPs have received almost £10,000 worth of free tickets to sporting events since the last general election in 2019, the Birmingham Post can reveal.

The 11 sets of tickets were worth a total of £9,441, with tickets to the value of £2,835 being provided by companies linked to gambling.

There is nothing in the rules against these freebies, as long as they are logged in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Julian Knight, MP for Solihull, received seven sets of tickets, worth a total of £4,646. They included tickets to England v Sri Lanka worth £1,598, courtesy of Surrey County Cricket Club.

Mr Knight also received £700 worth of tickets for The Open, and £480 worth of tickets for Wimbledon.

John Spellar, MP for Warley, received a ticket for England v Germany at the Euros, valued at £1,961, and donated by Power Leisure Bookmakers. Mr Spellar also received a Lord’s test match ticket worth £874 courtesy of the Betting and Gaming Council.

Craig Tracey, MP for North Warwickshire, received tickets for The Open, valued at £1,400.

Mike Wood, MP for Dudley South, received a £559 ticket for England v Denmark at the Euros, from Heineken.

The West Midlands MPs are far from being the only ones to have received free tickets. A total of 94 MPs have logged a combined 168 freebie trips to sporting events since the general election. Those trips were worth a total of £209,752 according to the values entered into the register.

Almost half of that amount (£96,186.14) came from organisations connected to gambling.

A total of 44 sets of tickets for the Euros were given to MPs, worth a combined total of £93,369. The British Grand Prix was the next most valuable trip, with 17 sets of tickets donated for a combined total of £26,785.

Wimbledon also saw 17 sets of tickets donated for a combined total of £20,663, while 19 tickets were issued for various test cricket matches worth a total of £14,964.00.