Deputy Speaker and Tory MP face Commons watchdog probe

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.

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.

A spokesperson for the Commons Speaker’s Office said that Dame Eleanor did not receive a fixed penalty notice from police regarding that event.

They declined to comment on the commissioner’s investigation.

Ms Crosbie also said that she did not receive a penalty from the Met over the event and promised to “cooperate fully” with the probe.

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

She said: “I will, of course, co-operate fully with this investigation.

“However, I would like to confirm I was contacted by the Metropolitan Police in October.

“It told me that following an investigation I would not receive a Fixed Penalty Notice in relation to allegations that Covid regulations were breached at an event I attended on 8th December 2020.”