Recently-installed UK PM Andy Burnham is facing accusations of failing to properly disclose a £6,600 VIP event he attended in Japan before returning to Parliament, adding another controversy over political freebies and transparency.
The exclusive reception was held in Osaka in June last year while Burnham was Mayor of Greater Manchester and leading a five-day trade mission, but it reportedly did not appear in his subsequent register of financial interests.
Incoming MPs are required to disclose relevant interests from the preceding 12 months, although Downing Street argues Burnham’s trip began before the applicable registration period.
Conservative MP Charlie Dewhirst has challenged that explanation, saying Burnham should “declare this immediately and apologise for his carelessness,” or face scrutiny from the parliamentary standards commissioner. No 10 said Burnham attended the trip in his official mayoral capacity and maintains it was not registrable, although the issue is reportedly being examined again.
The row is particularly awkward given Burnham’s substantial record of declared political support and hospitality: his first register after becoming Prime Minister reportedly included almost £350,000 in donations received during the preceding four months, alongside Glastonbury tickets and accommodation valued at £2,520 and hospitality at Aintree.
TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign director William Yarwood condemned the wider culture of political freebies, arguing that taxpayers struggling with heavy taxation would see such hospitality as evidence that the “Westminster gravy train” continues unabated.
He will not last long, will not talk about illegal immigrants, goes to Ukraine believing the UK is behind him, here’s the new boss, same as the old boss.
Well said. UK/Commonwealth nations no longer vote for a PM, they vote for the party who select the PM.
If the PM get’s all long-faced and finds the job too hard like Adern, then she just quits and hands the baby and the bathwater over to the next incompetent twit we never voted for.
The party rules the fake democracy in Clown World.
Worse
This Burnem lackey come useless idiot is enough to make you want to cringe and vomit profusely
Double bag that
Just the sight of this unsavory creature is hard work and enough to make your skin crawl with disgust
And epidermises the latest offering in a long line of corrupt incompetent and derelict politicians onto the funeral pyre of Britain
Unelected unwanted and now tottering the badge of number 10 North whatever that means
Burnem is about to be exposed for who and what he is and whose agenda and purpose he serves
The guy is a monumental disaster and abortion in the making
Well that didn’t take long, did it. Snout, trough…..