A member of the shadow cabinet used parliamentary facilities, funded by the taxpayer, to host a reception for a company that paid him to be an adviser, documents released today reveal.
Jeremy Hunt, the shadow culture secretary, is the founder of Hotcourses, which supplies educational information. In September 2006 he hosted a reception for 130 people on the terrace pavilion at Westminster, booked for Hotcourses.
The revelation is contained in documents released by parliamentary authorities detailing dining and entertainment facilities in the Palace of Westminster that were hired by MPs to host events for outside organisations. The documents, released for the first time, cover the period from 1 April 2004 to 30 September 2009, and run to 255 pages, covering 8,000 bookings of the taxpayer-subsidised facilities.
The rules state: "The private dining rooms are not to be used for direct or indirect financial or material gain by a sponsor, political party, or any other person or outside organisation."
Hotcourses paid Hunt £1,000 a month for eight hours of advisory work from July to December 2009, and funded his office, according to the MP's own declaration in the register of members' interests. Tonight he said: "The room booking was properly declared and approved by the relevant parliamentary authorities and there was no financial or material benefit to me or the event sponsors."
The former health secretary Patricia Hewitt hired rooms for a breakfast and a dinner with British Telecom in December 2008 and January 2009. She later became a non-executive director with the company.
The communities secretary, John Denham, hired a parliamentary room for a breakfast for 35 people in June 2006 – when he was a backbencher – for AXA Derbak, which later paid him a "one-off consultancy".
The Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis hosted five events for an estate agent, Carter Jonas, which employed his daughter Rachel. In 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 Willis booked dining room A for the company's Christmas lunch. Willis was not available for comment.
The documents also show that some Tory MPs, including frontbenchers, used Commons facilities for clubs designed to donate to their constituency associations. The Conservatives say the rules changed in 2007, preventing such events, and that similar events were also used by Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
The shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, hosted three dinners for his constituency "Portcullis club", in the period covered by the documents released by parliament. In the year ending 31 December 2008, the club contributed £5,000 to Grayling's Epsom and Ewell constituency Conservative party, according to its annual accounts.
One Tory website explains that such clubs are for party donors. The website for the Liverpool Portcullis club describes it as "an organisation that will be exclusive to party donors and will be focused on raising funds for the Conservative party locally, regionally and nationally".
The Tory MP for Worthing West, Peter Bottomley, held 30 events for a group called Westminster Circle, the last being a lunch in July 2009.
Bottomley confirmed that it had raised funds for local Conservative party associations, but that had now stopped. He said: "Many of the Westminster Circle group are electrical contractors and associated trades. Now when they make a surplus they give it to good causes. In the past, they gave some funds to Conservative associations."
The documents show that David Cameron hosted a tea event for the West Oxfordshire Lady Freemasons on 28 October 2008.
The records show that the event was held in dining room C and 14 people were expected. In November 2007 he booked a room for the Westminster Club, for a dinner for 12 people.
He also hosted three events for the British Dental Health Foundation, one for Mouth Cancer Week, and twice he hosted the launch of National Smile Month. The last time was in May 2009.
