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- Labour has asked the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to investigate Conservative MP Karl McCartney.
- Insider has revealed McCartney made apparently false declarations in his parliamentary register of interests.
- Labour Party Chair Anneliese Dodds told Insider: “If Karl McCartney is moonlighting, we need to know who for.”
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
The UK Labour Party has urged Parliament’s sleaze watchdog to investigate Conservative MP Karl McCartney after he appeared to make false declarations about his links to a family firm, Moonlighting Limited.
Insider has previously reported that McCartney claimed more than £30,000 in public funds for Parliamentary work carried out by a company run by a donor to his first campaign to become a member of parliament.
McCartney has also declared that he is an “unpaid director of ML Systems Ltd”, an IT management and consultancy firm, which is now dissolved.
However, Insider discovered that McCartney’s entry in fact refers to a different active company named Moonlighting Systems Limited, whose sole director is McCartney’s brother, Kevin.
McCartney is listed as a secretary of that company, and a minority shareholder. Companies House records show McCartney has not been a director of Moonlighting Systems since 1999.
Insider previously revealed that McCartney also appeared to hide the name of another company in his expenses claims, providing only the letter A to refer to Anagallis Communications, a firm run by a donor.
Following Insider’s investigation, the chair of the Labour Party, Anneliese Dodds, has asked Kathryn Stone, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to investigate if McCartney has broken House of Commons rules.
In her letter, seen by Insider, Dodds writes: “Karl McCartney has held a role at his family business for over twenty years, yet has omitted its full name from his register of financial interests. I am sure you will agree that it is in the public interest that Members of Parliament accurately register their financial interests.
“A member of the public seeking to understand those interests in relation to the Member for Lincoln may currently be led to believe that he is part of a company that is no longer trading. The Member for Lincoln’s failure to register the full and proper name for the company he does represent could also mislead, as could his inaccurate description of his current role.”
She asks: “Does the Parliamentary Commissioner of Standards consider this to be an acceptable entry in the Members’ Register of Financial Interests? If not, can you set out what steps you intend to take to compel the Member for Lincoln to correct the record?”
She told Insider: “If Karl McCartney is moonlighting, we need to know who for – and he shouldn’t hide behind the name of a company that no longer exists.
“The rules are there for a reason, the Conservatives can’t just act as if they don’t apply to them.”
McCartney’s declaration of Moonlighting Systems as ML Systems dates back to when he was first elected in 2010.
Insider approached McCartney for comment but did not receive any response by the time of publication.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Moonlighting Systems or McCartney’s brother.