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<\/p>\nA Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons and another Tory MP are being investigated by Parliament’s sleaze watchdog.<\/p>\n
Dame Eleanor Laing and Virginia Crosbie are both being probed over ‘actions causing significant damage to the reputation’ of the Commons.<\/p>\n
The pair have previously faced questions about a ‘birthday drinks’ bash in Parliament in December 2020, when strict Covid rules were in place.<\/p>\n
The alleged lockdown-busting event is claimed to have been hosted in Dame Eleanor’s offices in order to celebrate the birthdays of Ms Crosbie and Anne Jenkin.<\/p>\n
Baroness Jenkin is a Tory peer who is the wife of senior Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin.<\/p>\n
The December 2020 gathering was cited by former prime minister Boris Johnson in a statement accusing Sir Bernard of ‘monstrous hypocrisy’.<\/p>\n
Sir Bernard allegedly attended the event before he later sat on the cross-party panel which found Mr Johnson had lied to MPs with his Partygate denials.<\/p>\n
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An alleged lockdown-busting event is claimed to have been hosted in Dame Eleanor Laing’s offices in order to celebrate the birthdays of Virginia Crosbie and Anne Jenkin<\/p>\n
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Ms Crosbie, MP for Ynys Mon, apologised earlier this year for attending an event in Parliament while Covid restrictions were still in place<\/p>\n
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The December 2020 gathering was cited by former prime minister Boris Johnson in a statement accusing Sir Bernard Jenkin of ‘monstrous hypocrisy’<\/p>\n
The Commons’ Standards Commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, is now looking into claims Dame Eleanor and Ms Crosbie may have broken rules for MPs.<\/p>\n
An investigation opened yesterday is centred on allegations about ‘actions causing significant damage to the reputation of the House as a whole, or of its Members generally’.<\/p>\n
The Commissioner has not released any further details regarding the probe.<\/p>\n
Ms Crosbie, MP for\u00a0Ynys Mon, apologised earlier this year for attending an event in Parliament while Covid restrictions were still in place.<\/p>\n
In a statement, she said that she did not receive a penalty from police over the event and promised to ‘cooperate fully’ with the probe.<\/p>\n
She said: ‘I will, of course, co-operate fully with this investigation.<\/p>\n
‘However, I would like to confirm I was contacted by the Metropolitan Police in October.<\/p>\n
‘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.’<\/p>\n
Dame Eleanor, MP for Epping Forest, has served as a Deputy Speaker since 2013 under both current Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and his predecessor John Bercow.<\/p>\n
An invite sent by Baroness Jenkin on WhatsApp described the planned bash in December 2020 as a ‘birthday drinks’ party for ‘a few of our favourite people’.<\/p>\n
The planned event was described as being ‘v small and socially distanced’.<\/p>\n
At the time, lockdown regulations in London made clear that ‘you must not meet socially indoors with family or friends unless they are part of your household…or support bubble’.<\/p>\n