The grabbing hands of the crooks who rule us

[David Guyatt]

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MPs shall go to the ball … thanks to more than £100,000 of free hospitality

Analysis of register reveals MPs have accepted VIP tickets, often from corporations, and £800,000 worth of foreign trips

• James Ball and Harry Davies
  
• The Guardian, Friday 24 October 2014 14.41 BST
  

(L to R) Chief whip Michael Gove accepted tickets to Glyndbourne opera festival, Speaker John Bercow joined the royal box at Wimbledon several times, and shadow chancellor Ed Balls received a Bloomberg computer to monitor financial information.Photograph: Guardian

MPs have been given free tickets to sports events, balls and the opera, worth more than £100,000, alongside £800,000 worth of foreign trips, an analysis of the current register of members' interests reveals.
Perks received by parliamentarians, often from large corporations, include free VIP tickets to Wimbledon, trips to the Glyndebourne opera festival, and tours of the Chelsea flower show.
Tobacco companies were among the most prolific providers of corporate hospitality to MPs, with JTI, the maker of Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut cigarettes, offering hospitality to nine MPs. Imperial Tobacco provided three MPs with VIP tickets to, and hospitality at the Wimbledon tennis finals, worth around £1,600 each.
One of the keenest recipients of free tennis tickets was the Speaker of the House, John Bercow, who accepted a week's free pass to the ATP World Tour finals from professional player Aisam Qureshi. He also accepted seats in the royal box at Wimbledon on several occasions, courtesy of the Lawn Tennis Association.

Michael Gove, the chief whip and former education secretary, also received hospitality on several occasions, including ball tickets from Capital FM; tickets and hospitality for the opera at Glyndebourne from Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail; and private box tickets from Chelsea Football Club.
The Guardian contacted the offices of both Gove and Bercow several times to ask about the possible benefits to their constituents of accepting such hospitality, but neither had responded at the time of publication.
Under parliamentary rules, MPs are free to accept hospitality and overseas visits at their own discretion, provided all are declared on the appropriate parliamentary registers. All the visits covered by the Guardian were properly declared, and there is no suggestion any MP breached parliamentary rules.
The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, accepted a Bloomberg computer terminal and subscription, which provides sophisticated and rapid financial information; a benefit he said was worth £14,800.
Numerous MPs accepted overseas trips, often funded by cross-party groups with interests in particular countries. Israel and the Palestinian territories were the most common destination, with a total of 47 trips, the vast majority of which were funded by the Friends of Israel groups associated with the MPs' respective political parties.
Hong Kong and China were also the destination of several group trips for MPs, primarily through the all-party parliamentary group for China, which is funded by HSBC, GSK, Arup and others.
Richard Graham, the MP for Gloucester and chair of the China group, said the visits provided substantial benefit to the UK.
"As the only Chinese speaker in the House of Commons, a former diplomat, British trade commissioner [for] China and the former founder chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, I see part of my role in parliament to offer an informed perspective on that very important country," he said.
Graham said several businesses in his constituency exported goods to China, and noted: "Constituents raise issues of human and animal rights in China, which it is easier to answer when you have first-hand experience".
The £800,000 worth of overseas trips and hospitality included in the Guardian analysis does not include visits undertaken as part of ministerial duties, or travel costs associated with MPs' outside earnings, such as the cost of flights for giving a paid speech, which are typically declared elsewhere on the registers.
Other trips included multi-day visits to Antigua, one funded by a trade union and another by a regional forum; visits to Rio de Janeiro for conferences; trips to Dubai sponsored by conference organisers; visits to Saudi Arabia and the UAE covered by the respective governments of each country; and a visit to Florida to speak on biomass power generation.