The suspension of Tory MP Scott Benton after he offered to leak sensitive Government policy to a gambling company has shed renewed light on lobbying in Westminster, and the murky world of All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs).
Mr Benton, who had the whip removed yesterday after being caught in an undercover sting, is the current chair of the APPG on betting and gaming, which describes itself as the “go-between” for the gambling industry and government.
The MP for Blackpool South was recorded by The Times saying he could table questions to ministers on behalf of lobbyists looking to invest in the UK gambling industry if they paid him £2,000-3,000 a month.
During his two-year reign as chair of the APPG on betting and gaming, Mr Benton has accepted tickets worth £8,500 to Ascot, Wimbledon, various football matches and the Brit Awards, all paid for by gambling companies and the industry body, the Betting and Gaming Council.
While there is no suggestion that Mr Benton leveraged his APPG chairmanship to financial benefit, it has raised concerns about the power the shady groups wield over Westminster and beyond.
There are more than 750 of the informal cross-party groups of MPs and peers in total, covering everything from food banks to cyber security, yoga, wine and spirits.
MPs have insisted that the informal groups are able to forge links on specific issues across party lines, and can act more nimbly than select committees, which are often slow in producing reports and organising meetings.
The campaign groups can use parliamentary premises for their meetings and events, can produce influential reports on certain topics, and can even use Parliament’s special portcullis logo on all material they produce – but unlike select committees they have no official status.
While many do good work, including a separate APPG on Gambling Related Harm, others have rather more obscure intentions, stoking concerns about potential backdoor influence.
In a damning report published by the House of Commons’ standards committee on Wednesday, on the same day that revelations about Mr Benton emerged, senior MPs warned that APPGs are one of the “easiest ways” for companies to influence new laws.
Chris Bryant, the Labour chair of the standards committee, described the groups as the “soft underbelly of parliamentary access”, as he called for a total ban on APPGs being funded by foreign governments.
Almost 140 groups are affiliated with other countries, and purport to foster good relations between foreign governments and the UK. But some of these have raised specific concerns in recent years over potential foreign influence.
Qatar
The Qatari government spent more than £250,000 on flights, luxury hotel stays and hospitality events for MPs – most of whom were members of the APPG on Qatar – in the run-up to last year’s World Cup in the Gulf State.
It came as the sports tournament sparked increased scrutiny over Qatar’s human rights record and the country’s stance on LGBT+ rights, amid concerns over the treatment of migrant workers on World Cup sites and female and gay fans flocking to watch the football.
But criticism in Westminster was more subdued, with several APPG members who had been lavished with gifts by the Qatari government making pains to defend the country in the run-up to the tournament.
Alun Cairns, the chair of the APPG on Qatar who received £9,323 worth of donations from Doha in 2022, made a speech in the Commons last October praising Qatar and “paying tribute” to its response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, David Mundell, the deputy chair of the APPG, who accepted hospitality worth £7,473 from Qatar last year, rebuffed concerns about LGBT+ rights in the Middle Eastern kingdom, saying there were also “serious issues with professional football here in the United Kingdom”.
Mr Cairns and Mr Mundell were both approached for comment.
China
Transparency campaigners have also raised concerns about the APPG on China, which in 2021 invited Zheng Zeguang, the Chinese ambassador, to speak in Parliament.
The invitation came despite Beijing having recently imposed sanctions on 9 British MPs who had highlighted alleged human right abuses in Xinjiang.
It was swiftly blocked by the speakers of both Houses of Parliament, with Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, saying: “I do not feel it’s appropriate for the ambassador for China to meet on the Commons estate and in our place of work when his country has imposed sanctions against some of our members.”
The APPG on China, which was established in 2015 to promote closer ties between London and Beijing, has also drawn questions over its large corporate donations.
Wealthy donors including HSBC, John Swire & Sons, Arup and the City of London Corporation, which all have significant business interests in China, have poured more than £110,000 into the group over the past few years.
All the donations were made and declared in accordance with parliamentary rules. But MPs suggested the business interests of the firms should raise questions over the appropriateness of the gifts.
In January last year, MI5 also raised the alarm about a different APPG with links to China. The security service claimed that Christine Lee, an alleged Chinese “spy”, had helped set up the Chinese in Britain APPG to promote the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.
It emerged that former Labour minister Barry Gardiner received more than £500,000 from Ms Lee’s firm to cover staffing costs, while smaller sums were given to Labour HQ and Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey.
MI5 claimed it was part of Ms Lee’s efforts to influence UK politicians while facilitating donations from figures in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. China denied the allegations and accused MI5 of “smearing and intimidation” against the UK’s Chinese community.
Covid vaccines
Even APPGs without obvious financial ties have ruffled feathers within Parliament. The suspension of Andrew Bridgen as a Tory MP in January, after he compared the Covid-19 vaccine rollout to the Holocaust, shed light on a new APPG that had recently entered the parliamentary landscape: the APPG on Covid-19 Vaccine Damage.
It later emerged that Mr Bridgen had invited Aseem Malhotra, a Harley Street doctor whose criticisms of the Covid vaccine have been dismissed by experts, to speak at an event on the parliamentary estate hosted by the APPG last October.
A week later, Mr Bridgen made his first substantial public comments on vaccine safety during a debate in Parliament, noting that it had been a “pleasure” to meet Mr Malhotra at the APPG event.
It revived concerns over the privileged access granted to individuals with links to APPGs.
Those concerns were sharpened when it emerged earlier this year that James Freeman Wells, a former MEP who represented Wales for the Brexit Party in Brussels, had been offering access to the APPG’s events to paid subscribers of his Patreon account, according to Tortoise.
Other attendees of the APPG’s events included members of the Health Advisory and Recovery Team, an anti-lockdown pressure group.
Sex trips
Meanwhile, Politico reported last year that MPs have used parliamentary trips abroad to procure the services of sex workers. Anonymous politicians, officials and diplomats told the website that a number of unnamed MPs sought out brothels during trips overseas organised by APPGs with links to foreign countries.
Responding to the claims, standards committee chair Mr Bryant told i that the allegations risked giving “the impression that MPs are all dastardly”, and that APPGs could still prove their worth if the system were tightened.
In the committee’s latest report published yesterday, Mr Bryant suggested APPGs should be banned from receiving funding from foreign states, but stopped short of calling for a ban on all-expenses-paid foreign trips.
Transparency campaigners told i that such “glaring loopholes” must be stamped out “urgently” if APPGs are to retain any sense of credibility.
Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, said it was becoming increasingly clear that “private interests and foreign actors have sought to use APPGs as a backdoor for lobbying in Parliament”.
“Whilst we welcome the standards committee’s recent recommendations for reform glaring loopholes remain, such as all expenses paid trips paid for by foreign governments,” he told i.
“That corrupt, repressive and even hostile regimes can legally pay for MPs’ overseas visits beggars belief and needs addressing urgently.”