MPS received more than £8,000 of sporting tickets free
GLOUCESTERSHIRE MPS have received more than £8,000 worth of free tickets for sporting events since the last General Election, an exclusive investigation for the Gloucestershire Echo has revealed.
Betting firms, media companies and sporting organisations are amongst those who have lavished 13 sets of tickets on our county’s politicians.
Those tickets had an estimated value of £8,243 and covered horse racing and polo.
The payments have been identified from an analysis of the latest Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
Tewkesbury MP Laurence Robertson received more tickets than any other MP in our county and the second most of any MP in the country.
He received £7,433 worth of tickets, all of which were for horse racing events.
Six of those events were paid for by betting firms William Hill and Ladbrokes Coral and were worth an estimated £2,585.
Cotswolds MP Sir Geoffrey Cliftonbrown received two tickets for the Royal Box and lunch at the Cartier Queens Cup Final from the Guards Polo Club which were worth an estimated £800.
Conservative MP Mr Robertson, whose constituency covers Cheltenham Racecourse, has been approached for comment.
Fellow Tory MP Sir Geoffrey Cliftonbrown said: “Earlier this year I was asked to join the All-party Parliamentary Group on Polo as the Cotswolds is one of the largest polo playing constituencies in the country.
“The purpose of my visit to the Guards Polo Club was to be able to understand better how the sport works and, most importantly, what issues are currently affecting the sport.
“A major concern was continued access to seasonal workers to care for the horses post-brexit.”
Across the UK as a whole, companies and individuals have lavished £123,798 worth of free tickets on MPS since the last General Election, in June 2017.
Football proved to be the most popular sport, with 55 sets of tickets given in all.
Those were worth £30,145, according to the register. Horse racing is also popular with members of Parliament.
Companies, charities and other organisations have spent £29,800 providing MPS with a day at the races.
Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has received more tickets than any other MP in the current parliamentary session.
The tickets donated to Mr Bercow had a combined value of £12,929.
The majority of them were for football games.
The Speaker also received six lots of tennis tickets totalling £5,589.
Messrs Robertson and Davies top the list for tickets donated by betting companies.
Some £16,444 worth of trips lavished on MPS have been paid for by gambling firms.
Shipley MP Philip Davies received £3,204 worth of those tickets, all of which were for horse races.
Media companies dished out more tickets than any other type of company though.
Tickets worth a combined total of £23,376 came from media organisations such as ITV (£16,195), BT (£4,725) and the BBC (£216). echo.news@localworld.co.uk