Tory chairman Jake Berry faces a grilling after an MP was made a director of a company funded with taxpayer cash without knowing.
Companies House records show Government whip Damien Moore joined Mr Berry’s Northern Research Group Ltd in June 2021 and resigned two months later.
But Tory MPs say that despite the short period he was in post he still should have declared his directorship in the Commons Register of Members’ Interests.
But a spokesman for Mr Moore said: “Damien was never a director of NRG. The registrar is clear there is nothing to declare.”
The company was set up by former Northern Powerhouse minister Mr Berry in November 2020 in his campaign to get the Government to invest in the North in its levelling-up agenda.
MPs representing north of England constituencies pay £2,500 to join Parliament’s Northern Research Group, claimed back on expenses as “pooled staffing services”.
Insiders say the money from public funds makes up NRG Ltd’s assets of £61,848, used to pay for research and media digests. Company Secretary Paul Fitton said: “Jake Berry asked me to set up NRG Ltd and sent me a list of interested colleagues. Damien’s name was amongst those. Those that became directors returned signed paperwork. Damien did not yet my office included him and he was appointed. I was contacted by Damien Moore’s office to say it wasn’t his intention to be a director so I resigned him.”
Mr Berry quit the company last month when he became party chair and joined Liz Truss ’s Cabinet. He caused fury at this week’s Tory Party conference when he defended the PM’s tax cuts for the rich, saying: “People know when their bills arrive, they can either cut their consumption or they can get a higher salary, higher wages, go out there and get that new job.”
Mr Berry did not comment.
