Hunt admits he broke money laundering rules over luxury f lats firm

The A&E units where 1 in 3 patients wait over 4 hours

HEALTH Secretary Jeremy Hunt breached anti- money laundering rules after setting up a company to buy seven luxury flats.

The minister, who has a personal fortune of more than £14million, failed to declare his interest in the property firm to Companies House, it was revealed last night.

The oversight is a criminal offence punishable by a fine or up to two years in prison.

He also failed to disclose his 50 per cent stake in the firm on the Parliamentary Register of Members’ interests within the specified 28 days. He later corrected both errors and apologised to the parliamentary authorities.

Mr Hunt has not breached the Ministerial Code of Conduct, according to Cabinet Office rules, and so retains the backing of Theresa May.

Yet he could still face investigation by the Commons’ Committee on Standards and Privileges, which polices the conduct of MPs.

Last night No 10 said: ‘ Jeremy has rightly apologised for an administrative oversight, and as the Cabinet Office have made clear there has been no breach of the Ministerial Code. We consider the matter closed.’

But a former MPs’ watchdog said that if Mr Hunt did not ‘face consequences’ it could create a ‘perception of double standards’, with ‘one rule for the political elite and another rule for the rest of the population’.

Sir Alistair Graham, a former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, told the Daily Telegraph, which revealed the oversight: ‘It is a very poor show when ministers, who you expect to take leadership in standards ... do not meet the rules they are required to meet.

‘If there has been a failure of leadership, there should be a political price for it. Either in terms of the damage to your reputation or to action by the Prime Minister in the case of the ministerial code, or by the Committee on Standards.’

Mr Hunt’s breaches relate to seven flats he bought in the Ocean Village complex in Southampton in February. The average price paid for properties in the development is £240,000 per flat, according to Zoopla.

The mortgages were issued by a private bank to Mare Pond Properties Limited, a company set up by Mr Hunt and his wife Lucia Guo. Miss Guo was the only person named in the registration documents filed at Companies House when the firm was incorporated in September 2017. Mr Hunt appears to have breached the Companies Act on two counts. He should have declared to Companies House he was a ‘person with significant control’ within 28 days of registration. But he did not do so for six months.

Legislation passed by the Tories in 2016 made this compulsory for anyone who has more than 25 per cent of shares or voting rights in a company. The law was a central part of the Government’s plan to tackle money laundering, and failure to comply is an offence punishable by a fine or up to two years in prison.

The second breach relates to the fact Mr Hunt’s name was omitted from the registration document – a criminal offence under another section of the Companies Act. Parliamentary rules state MPs must register any shareholding greater than 15 per cent in any company within 28 days. But Mr Hunt took nearly five months to do so, registering his co-ownership of the company alongside the purchase of the flats in the Register of MPs’ Interests on March 7.

He told the Telegraph the breaches were down to an ‘honest mistake’ by his accountant and that he had corrected the listing after being alerted to it by a member of the public on March 28. His spokesman said: ‘These were honest administrative mistakes which have already been rectified. Jeremy’s accountant

‘A genuine oversight’

made an error in the Companies House filing which was a genuine oversight.

‘The Cabinet Office are clear that there has been no breach of the ministerial code. Jeremy declared the interest to them after the company was set up. They advised that as it was a shell company with no assets or value, it should only be registered when it became operational. As such, Jeremy presumed the same rules applied to Parliamentary declarations ... Jeremy accepts these mistakes are his responsibility and has apologised to the parliamentary authorities.’

Flats: Ocean Village complex A&E waiting times are at their worst level since records began, official figures reveal.Experts said the NHS was in the grip of an ‘eternal winter’ and many hospitals are still struggling to cope.Across England, only 84.5 per cent of patients arriving in A&E were seen within the target four hours last month. This is the worst since records began in 2004 and even lower than January and February, which were extremely busy.And at some hospitals more than a third of patients turning up in A&E wait four or more hours to be seen.The figures from NHS England show that some of the largest hospitals are faring particularly badly.The worst waits are at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh, in Lancashire where 36 per cent of patients waited four or more hours in March. They were only marginally better at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, where 35.5 per cent waited four or more hours.And 35 per cent of patients waited four hours or more at both United Lincolnshire Hospitals and Stockport Hospitals.The latest monthly data from NHS England also shows that waiting times for routine operations are at their highest since 2004.More than 15 per cent of patients needing procedures including hip and knee replacements are now waiting longer than 18 weeks.Many are in extreme pain and have had operations cancelled several times, as hospitals needed to free up beds. The figures have prompted concern among healthcare leaders as hospitals normally quieten down in spring, allowing staff to ‘catch up’. But there has been no such let-up this year.Dr Nick Scriven, of the Society for Acute Medicine which represents hospital staff, said: ‘These stark figures are the clearest indication yet of the eternal winter we now face in the NHS. As we settle into spring, hospitals remain under immense pressure and I am unsure how we are going to catch up.’‘Under immense pressure’

Set up company: Jeremy Hunt and his wife Lucia Guo