Minister Jess Phillips investigated by Commons standards watchdog

Home Office minister Jess Phillips has been placed under investigation by Parliament’s standards watchdog for failing to register an interest on time.

It is the third time in almost three years that the Birmingham Yardley MP has been investigated by Parliament’s standards commissioner, Daniel Greenberg, for late registration of an interest.

According to Commons rules, MPs must register interests such as income from non-parliamentary work within 28 days.

In May 2022, she was found to have registered income from public speaking, television appearances, newspaper articles and books late on 18 occasions, which the commissioner characterised as “inadvertent” breaches of the rules.

A year later, Ms Phillips was referred to the Commons Standards Committee after registering payment for a lecture at the University of Bristol two days after the 28-day deadline.

This was again described as a “minor breach”, especially as she had attempted to register the interest before the deadline, but referred to the committee as it had occurred so soon after the conclusion of the commissioner’s previous investigation.

At the time, the commissioner said a “casual attitude” to the register of interests was “unacceptable”.

The committee chose to take no further action against Ms Phillips.

MPs are forbidden from commenting on ongoing investigations by the standards commissioner.

There are currently four open investigations into sitting MPs for allegedly breaching Commons rules. Along with Ms Phillips, the commissioner is investigating Labour’s Clive Lewis and Tory Danny Kruger regarding registering interests, and the DUP’s Sammy Wilson over an allegation he failed to declare an interest when asking a parliamentary question.

Former MPs Andrew Bridgen and Bob Stewart remain under investigation regarding their interests, after cases were opened on them before the general election.