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Tory MP reported after breaking ministerial code – again
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Former Conservative minister George Freeman has been reported to the Cabinet Office for breaching the ministerial code for a second time in three months, openDemocracy has learned.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) referred Freeman after he failed to notify the lobbying watchdog before taking up a number of roles outside Parliament, including with an energy firm that produces hydrogen for buses.

“The failure to seek advice is a breach of the government’s rules and the requirement as set out in the Ministerial Code,” ACOBA chair, former Conservative minister Eric Pickles, wrote in a letter to Cabinet Office secretary Michael Gove.

Freeman apologised “for misunderstanding the process”.

Transparency campaigners have said that Freeman’s latest breach of the ministerial code shows “the system is broken and needs a complete overhaul”.

Pickles has called for reform of lobbying rules amid the scandal over former prime minister David Cameron’s lobbying for the collapsed finance firm, Greensill Capital.

At least two senior civil servants took jobs with Greensill while working in the Cabinet Office without notifying ACOBA.

Earlier this year, openDemocracy revealed that Freeman had broken the ministerial code by failing to consult ACOBA before taking up a paid consultancy role with a firm that produces protective equipment used by the NHS during the pandemic.

Freeman subsequently wrote to Pickles demanding an apology for being “condemned as guilty” and told his local newspaper that ACOBA had “apologised” to him over what he said was its “confusing” guidance.

But in a strongly worded letter, Pickles denied that there had been any apology and said that Freeman was under investigation for at the time unspecified further breaches of the ministerial code.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/tory-mp-reported-after-breaking-ministerial-code-again/