Senior Tory Lee Anderson broke the parliamentary code of conduct by filming a GB News clip on the roof of the House of Commons, an investigation has found.
The party’s deputy chair and MP for Ashfield used both Parliament Square and Whitehall as the backdrop for an advert promoting his show with the broadcaster, asking viewers to get in touch and voice their issues for a chance at appearing on it.
Paid £100,000 per year for the show – which comprises eight hours’ work a week – Lee Anderson’s Real World markets itself as bringing the “real world to the Great British public”, purporting to allow the “silent majority” to “have their voices heard”.
Lee Anderson talks to Jacob Rees-Mogg at GB News during Rees-Mogg’s show Jacob Rees-Mogg’s State of The Nation— (PA)
Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, launched a probe on 6 July following media reports that Mr Anderson had filmed the commercial for his programme on the parliamentary estate without permission.
On 24 July, he received a complaint that the MP had also used his parliamentary email address to distribute a newsletter to his constituents promoting the same programme.
During the course of the investigation, Mr Anderson reportedly “accepted that he had failed to seek authorisation to film on the parliamentary estate, apologised and took responsibility for his decision”, the summary published on the UK Parliament website described.
Mr Anderson sought to justify the sending of the newsletter, saying it “had been sent from an email distribution platform for which he had paid personally”, having used his parliamentary email address when he first set up the account and “forgot to change it”.
But Mr Greenberg rejected that claim and concluded both the filming and sending of the newsletter amounted to a breach of the rules.
“I found that by filming for a commercial purpose on the parliamentary estate 30 without authorisation and by sending a newsletter which appeared to come from a parliamentary email address and included an advertisement for his television programme on the GB News channel, Mr Anderson had breached Rule 8 of the Code of Conduct”, Mr Greenberg said.
“Mr Anderson has accepted my decision, acknowledged that the breaches occurred, apologised, and given an undertaking that breaches of this kind will not recur.”
Mr Anderson first launched the show in June by spoon-feeding fellow Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith baked beans, naming a “wokey of the week” and featuring as a “token lefty” ex-Labour MP Simon Danczuk who was suspended after reports he sent inappropriate texts to a teenage girl.
A former Labour councillor before deflecting to the Conservatives, Mr Anderson is known for his controversial comments, having previously called for the return of the death penalty and claimed that people on universal credit were not in poverty.
He has also been dubbed “30p Lee” for alleging that meals could be prepared for that sum, suggesting that people using food banks could not budget.
