TORIES’ £80k FOR BREXIT ACCESS ROW
Boasting peer offered to help ‘Chinese firm’
A TORY peer boasted about how the Prime Minister went to his wedding as he asked for £4300 a day to help “Chinese tycoons” looking for Brexit advice.
Lord Lansley also bragged that David Cameron worked for him before reaching No10, as he tried to land a bumper £80,000 deal.
He told undercover reporters posing as businessmen from fictitious Chinese firm Tianfen: “Of course, Theresa and Philip – Theresa May and her husband Philip – came to our wedding.” Fellow top Conservatives Andrew Mitchell and Peter Lilley were also caught in the sting by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times.
Former health secretary Lansley said his fee would be “about €5000 [£4300] a day”. He told the team: “I’m nearly unique in the sense of having been a private secretary to a Cabinet Minister in the Civil Service and also a Cabinet Minister.”
He offered insight on key contacts that would help the company to lobby the Government more effectively. And he said he has advised a number of health and pharmaceutical companies on Brexit.
Former international development secretary Mitchell also seemed happy to give advice for a fat fee.
He told the undercover team: “If you look at my register of interests in the House of Commons, you will see that I am paid at the rate of £6000 a day.”
And former deputy Tory leader Lilley was also willing to approach key ministers on the Chinese company’s behalf, talking up his links to Brexit Minister Steve Baker and Trade Secretary Liam Fox.
None of the men is alleged to have breached the Parliamentary standards code and all three strongly deny misconduct.
Lilley described the sting bid as a “tawdry attempt at entrapment”, adding: “I did nothing improper whatsoever.”
A spokesman for Lansley said he had “made clear at all times that any work he carries out has to comply with the House of Lords Code of Conduct”.
Mitchell said he would do no lobbying because it was against Commons rules and he would consult parliamentary chiefs.