Jeremy Hunt has admitted breaches of parliamentary rules on MPs’ financial interests and legislation introduced to curb money laundering, it emerged last night.
The health secretary failed to make a declaration to Companies House in relation to a company used to buy seven luxury flats and did not record the purchase in the MPs’ register of interests within four weeks, according to The Daily Telegraph. Mr Hunt said that he corrected the errors before they came to light and the Cabinet Office has ruled that he did not break the ministerial code.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “Jeremy has rightly apologised for an administrative oversight and as the Cabinet Office has made clear there has been no breach of the ministerial code. We consider the matter closed.”
The newspaper said that Mr Hunt failed properly to register his interest in a company set up by himself and his wife that was used to purchase flats in Southampton on February 7. Only his wife was named in documents registered when the company was incorporated last September. Laws introduced to curb money laundering require that anyone with more than a 25 per cent stake should declare their interest.
Mr Hunt, one of the richest members of the cabinet with an estimated £14.5 million, declared his interest in Mare Pond six months after its incorporation, in an apparent breach of the Companies Act, an offence punishable by a fine or up to two years in prison.And thus a member of the Cabinet admits a breach of parliamentary rules on financial interests and apparently commits a criminal offence. Yet there is no breach of the ministerial code?
Move along; nothing to see here?
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