Labour MP Steve Reed has called on the parliamentary commissioner for standards to investigate housing secretary Robert Jenrick for his actions in the approval of Richard Desmond’s Westferry Printworks development.
Reed has written to the independent officer demanding an investigation into a potential breach of code of conduct and called on prime minister Boris Johnson to explain his own involvement in the case.
His actions follow the recent disclosure of e-mails and texts between Jenrick, his department, Desmond and Northern & Shell, revealing a drive to hurry through the development to avoid a £45m CIL charge.
The documents suggest the housing secretary started pressing for a decision the day after he met with Desmond at a Conservative Party fundraiser, with the case flagged as urgent and Jenrick “insistent” that a decision was reached before the scheme’s viability was affected.
The Labour Party said the “explosive” revelations have raised fresh questions. “The documents show he appeared to be acting on direct instruction from Mr Desmond, which is a serious abuse of powers he is supposed to exercise impartially.”
Reed said: “The prime minister has yet again shown woefully poor judgment by not referring clear breaches of the Ministerial Code to the cabinet secretary and he must now come clean himself about his own involvement in this case.
“The government must publish all the remaining secret documents in this case to show the public what Mr Jenrick and the prime minister were really up to and prove that this is not the start of a new era of Tory sleaze.”
A spokesman for Jenrick said: “This letter from the Labour Party is unfounded, spurious and vexatious.
“The secretary of state has publicly set out a full account of his rationale for approving the planning appeal, and published all of the relevant documents for complete transparency. He has been clear that his decision was made with an open and fair mind.”
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