UK

Deputy Speaker and Tory MP face Commons watchdog probe

Dame Eleanor Laing,vConservative MP for Epping Forest (Parliament Handout/PA)
Dame Eleanor Laing,vConservative MP for Epping Forest (Parliament Handout/PA)

The Deputy Speaker and a Tory MP are under investigation by the Commons standards watchdog.

Commons’ Standards Commissioner Daniel Greenberg is looking into allegations that Dame Eleanor Laing and Virginia Crosbie, MP for Ynys Mon, may have broken rules for MPs.

The allegations relate to “actions causing significant damage to the reputation of the House as a whole, or of its Members generally”.

The Commissioner has not released any further details regarding the probe.

UK Parliament portraits
Virginia Crosbie, MP for Ynys Mon (Parliament Handout/PA)

The pair previously faced questions about a gathering in Parliament on December 8 2020.

The gathering, said to have been arranged by Dame Eleanor, was cited by Boris Johnson in a statement accusing Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin of “monstrous hypocrisy” for allegedly attending the event before sitting on the cross-party panel which found the former prime minister had lied to MPs with his partygate denials.

Ms Crosbie apologised earlier this year for attending an event in Parliament while Covid restrictions were still in place.