MP Margot James: Yeo must stand down if claims are true

Tory Tim Yeo, who heads the Energy and Climate Change Committee, has said he 'totally rejects' claims made after a sting by journalists.

But Margot James, Conservative MP for Stourbridge, said the allegations were 'damning' and that paid consultancy posts and directorships were 'incompatible' with his role.

Mr Yeo could come under pressure to step aside from his role after referring himself to parliamentary standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson. The reporters approached Mr Yeo posing as representatives of a solar energy company, offering to hire him at £7,000 a day to push for new laws to boost its business.

He apparently said he could not speak out publicly for the green energy firm they claimed to represent because 'people will say he's saying this because of his commercial interest'.

Miss James, a member of an influential group of MPs advising the Prime Minister on his strategy for the next election, tweeted: "Damning allegations in the Sunday Times, paid consultancy and directorships relevant to committee work is surely incompatible with chairing a committee."

The House of Commons code of conduct forbids members from acting as paid advocates, including by lobbying ministers.

Mr Yeo was scheduled to give broadcast interviews yesterday, but pulled out at the last minute. He issued a detailed statement denying the claims. The newspaper's footage showed Mr

Yeo seemingly suggesting that he had coached a paying client on how to influence the committee.

Mr Yeo said: "The Sunday Times has chosen to quote very selectively from a recording obtained clandestinely during a conversation of nearly an hour-and-a-half in a restaurant with two undercover reporters who purported to be representing a client from South Korea.

"My lawyer requested the whole recording from which these extracts were obtained but this has not been given. The whole recording would show the context of the conversation and demonstrate clearly that at no stage did I agree or offer to work for the fictitious company these undercover reporters claimed to be representing, still less did I commit to doing so for a day a month as the article claims."

Mr Yeo said the allegation that he coached a client was 'totally untrue'.

The MP receives £14,728 a year for chairing the committee on top of his £65,738 salary.